India’s ACME Greentech Secures ₹26b for 450MW Assured Peak Power Hybrid Project
Funding closes for one of India's largest assured-peak hybrid plants, underscoring the shift toward wind-solar-storage combinations across Asia.
ACME Solar has secured US$274.4m (₹26b) in funding from REC Ltd for its ACME Greentech Seventh 450MW/1800MWh Assured Peak Power Project, the company said in a press release. The financing lines up with a broader pivot across the region's renewable buildout: developers are pairing wind, solar and battery capacity so they can deliver power when the sun drops and the breeze fades, rather than simply generating it.5
The Indian project uses the money to develop its 450MW peak power complex, a configuration that pairs solar with storage. ACME's move follows a similar play from Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited (TPREL), a Tata Power subsidiary, which started construction in early August (2026-08-03) on an 800MW project in Andhra Pradesh that combines 400MW of wind with 400MW of solar. Both developers are chasing a market reality that has reshaped procurement: grid operators increasingly want dispatchable renewable output, not just cheap electrons at noon.6
That reality is playing out globally. In Australia, the federal Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) Tender 7 awarded 19 projects delivering 7.8GW of renewable generation across the National Electricity Market, a result that beat the original 5GW target by more than half. The tender closed in October 2025 and results were announced in May (2026-05-22), but the composition of winners tells the story: hybrids dominated, with batteries embedded in wind and solar proposals from the design stage.2
The biggest solar hybrid to win under CIS Tender 7 is the Birriwa project in New South Wales, owned by Acen Renewables, with 600MW of solar capacity and 2,400MWh of battery storage. Across the 19 winning bids, ministers said the projects would unlock $17 billion in private investment and create an estimated 19,000 construction jobs, with underwriting agreements that effectively eliminate downside revenue risk to ease financing.1
Energy consultant Marijia Petkovic told RenewEconomy in early June (2026-06-01) that over the last 18 months wind developers have started thinking about how to add a battery to upcoming projects, with most now considering storage from the earliest stages of project development. The same pattern shows up in the data: a CIS tender that asked for wind-only capacity in Victoria secured just two winners, Engie's 338MW Willatook wind project and ICA Partners' 70MW Woolsthorpe project.1
The shift has implications for how generation is priced and financed. At current levels, ICE Brent Crude front-month sits at $98.59/bbl as of Monday (2026-09-07) 11:10 UTC, while Australian Wallumbilla gas was last indicated at A$10.90/GJ as of 2026-09-08 08:17 UTC. But the more relevant benchmark for these hybrid plants is the capacity price, not the fuel price, which is why underwriting schemes like Australia's CIS matter: they transfer downside risk away from developers and onto the state.1
Still, questions about delivery remain. The CIS winners have committed nearly $1.2 billion in social licence expenditures, including local community programmes, ranger programmes, mental health support and First Nations initiatives, plus $257 million in other commitments. Those costs add up, and they are now on the balance sheet of every winning developer alongside turbine and panel procurement.1
The next test comes with CIS Tender 9. New South Wales has already met its agreed quota under the scheme and has launched its own tender seeking 2.5GW of new capacity that is expected shortly, with a special emphasis on wind and solar hybrids that can deliver power outside daylight hours. The exclusion of NSW from the next federal round signals how quickly the procurement pipeline is moving from plain renewables to duration-capable generation.1
Avangrid's Tower Solar project in Morrow County, Oregon, which reached commercial operation in June (2026-06-01), and the 240MW/960MWh battery storage consent secured by NextEnergy-owned Starlight Energy at Thorpe Thewles in the UK in July (2026-07-14), point in the same direction: standalone generation is becoming the exception rather than the rule.3,4
For investors, the area to watch is execution. ACME Solar's 450MW assured peak project and Tata Power's 800MW Andhra Pradesh build will test whether Indian developers can manage the complexity of pairing wind with solar and storage at scale, in a market where grid interconnection queues and land acquisition remain perennial bottlenecks. The financing is done. The construction risk has just begun.5,6