ACME Solar is a renewable-energy power plant builder and operator that sells every unit of electricity it generates under decades-long government contracts - a model built for predictability, not speculation. It began in 2009 when the ACME Group, which had been keeping India’s telecom towers running, turned its attention to solar power, and in 2015 all the solar operations were brought under one roof. The recurring idea is vertical integration: the company develops the project, buys the land, builds the plant with its own team, runs it with its own people, and sells the power to a state-backed buyer - controlling time, cost and technology at every step.
Business segments
A single engine with two mutually reinforcing halves - a contracted power-generation fleet that provides the long-term cash flows, and a fast-scaling battery-storage business that turns the same sites and grid connections into a higher-value, round-the-clock product.
1. Contracted power generation: the annuity that underwrites everything
Every megawatt the company builds is pre-sold on a 25-year fixed-price contract to a government-backed buyer, turning sunlight and wind into a utility-like cash flow stream.
- Paid per unit, not per project - the company earns a fixed tariff for every kilowatt-hour generated, with a weighted average of ₹3.4 per unit across its 2,990 MW of operational capacity and ₹4.4 per unit for the 5,081 MW under construction. The offtakers are central and state government entities such as SECI, NTPC and NHPC, with central counterparties representing 84% of the total portfolio, so the credit risk sits with the Indian state.
- The Rajasthan advantage - over three-quarters of the portfolio is in Rajasthan, a high-irradiation desert state where the company’s operational solar plants delivered an average capacity utilisation factor of 29.4% in the fourth quarter of FY25, well above the national norm. The flagship 1,200 MW facility there is one of India’s largest single-site renewable-energy installations and runs at over 30% CUF annually.
- Built, not bought - an in-house EPC team constructs every project, giving the company the ability to lock in equipment prices early, choose its own technology suppliers, and avoid the margin that a third-party contractor would charge. Once operational, the same team handles O&M, using robotic cleaning on over 80% of the portfolio and a 24/7 digital control centre with drone-based thermal imaging to keep plant availability above 99%.
- Land and wires are the real bottleneck - the company has a dedicated land-acquisition team that has secured over 25,000 acres across 12 states, with more than 15,000 acres already in hand for the under-construction pipeline. On the transmission side, it holds a connectivity inventory of roughly 9.6 GW, meaning the right to plug into the national grid is already secured or applied for across every project it is building.
- The pivot to firm power - since 2023 the company has shifted from plain-vanilla solar toward hybrid and Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy (FDRE) projects, which combine solar, wind and batteries to supply power on demand rather than only when the sun shines. These contracts command higher tariffs - recent wins include a 450 MW FDRE project with SJVN and a 250 MW FDRE project with NHPC at ₹4.33 per unit - and now make up 49% of the total portfolio.
2. Battery energy storage: the early bet on India’s peak-power market
The company has already commissioned one of India’s largest standalone battery fleets and is using it to buy cheap off-peak power and sell it back at a premium during peak hours - while laying the groundwork to attach storage to every future generation project.
- Charge low, sell high - the 2.3 GWh of commissioned battery capacity operates on a merchant basis, storing power when prices are low and discharging it when demand spikes, earning a net realisation of about ₹2.2 crores per day with a round-trip efficiency of 88-90%. The batteries are connected to the same interstate transmission system as the solar plants, so no new grid infrastructure was needed.
- Colocated to save capital - by installing batteries at existing solar sites, the company avoids roughly ₹20 lakhs per MW in transmission capital expenditure that a greenfield storage project would incur. The three battery SPVs - Acme Surya Power, Acme Sun Power and Acme Suryodaya - sit alongside operational solar capacity in Rajasthan.
- A pipeline built for the FDRE future - the under-construction portfolio will require approximately 17 GWh of additional battery installation, making storage not a side bet but the enabling technology for the firm-power contracts the company is now winning. The company has secured 4.3 GWh of battery connectivity grants, with over 13 GWh more approved under right-of-first-refusal and another 4 GWh in the application pipeline.
- Supplier depth from China - lithium-iron-phosphate battery procurement is concentrated among Chinese manufacturers, where the company sees enough competing suppliers to buy at scale and within project timelines, typically placing a 10% advance to lock in orders and let suppliers secure raw materials.
Group structure and partners
A holding company with a project-by-project subsidiary structure, majority promoter ownership, and a sister group that makes the hardware.
- Every power project sits in its own Special Purpose Vehicle, with 65 subsidiaries in the group as of March 2025 - a structure that ring-fences each plant’s debt and contracts.
- The promoter group held 83.29% of the company as of March 2026, with institutional shareholders including Nippon India Mutual Fund, TATA Mutual Fund and SBI Life holding a further 10.66%.
- During FY25 the company bought back five SPVs and acquired stakes in several more from its corporate promoter ACME Cleantech Solutions, consolidating project ownership under the listed entity.
- Separately, the wider ACME Group operates a 1.2 GW solar module factory in Jaipur under MKU Holdings and a 100,000-tonne-per-year green ammonia project in Oman under ACME Cleantech - adjacent industrial bets that sit outside the listed company but share the group’s renewable-energy DNA.