Independent power producer ACME Solar Holdings has commissioned a 300 MW solar project for the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL).

The solar project is situated in the Badiseed village of Jodhpur district in Rajasthan.

The Gurugram-based ACME Group has over 5,500 MW of grid-utility scale projects in 12 Indian states and 2,900 MW of projects under operation, and another 2,600 MW of renewable projects in the pipeline.

The 300 MW project is part of the 1 GW MSEDCL tender issued in December 2018 with a ceiling tariff at ₹2.80 (~$0.039)/kWh, later revised to ₹2.90 (~$0.041)/kWh. The tender managed to garner a tremendous response, oversubscribed by 900 MW. The auction was held in February 2019, where Shiv Solar and ACME Solar quoted the lowest tariff of ₹2.74 (~$0.038)/kWh. The L2 bidders in the auction were ReNew Power and Avaada Energy.

According to Chief Operating Officer of ACME Sandeep Kashyap, the 300 MW project in Rajasthan is the largest single-location project for the company so far. “We faced two consecutive rounds of the Covid-19 pandemic that brought working at the sites to a standstill. Prices of nearly all components peaked, and freight increased many folds. We could overcome all the shortcomings and commissioned the project in the shortest available time.”

ACME has also raised around $334 million for 12 of its solar projects by issuing offshore green bonds. The debt investment was to be funded by U.S. dollar-denominated green bonds. The bonds received green certification from Climate Bonds Initiative.

The company entered into a partnership with Scatec for a 900 MW solar project in Rajasthan. Based on the partnership, Scatec and ACME held a 50% economic interest each in the project. ACME was to be the turn-key engineering, procurement, and construction service provider for the project

Last July, ACME Solar was declared one of the winners in MSEDCL’s auction to procure power from 500 MW of solar photovoltaic projects (Phase VI) on a long-term basis.