Announcing the Winners of IEEE Empower A Billion Lives 2025

Grand prize goes to e-mobility startup in Liberia

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, December 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The winners of IEEE Empower a Billion Lives 2025 (EBL) contest were announced December 5, 2025 at the Global Final hosted by Eskom Research, Testing and Development, the South African Electric Utility. The EBL contest is a global initiative challenging researchers, entrepreneurs, and students to develop sustainable, scalable technical and business solutions for addressing global energy poverty and improving quality of life for the world's most vulnerable populations.

The contest culminated in a highly competitive final round, where judges from academia, industry, electricity utility and development finance institutions evaluated projects based on their technical innovation, scalability, economic viability, and social impact.

The IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) organizes the Empower a Billion Lives global competition providing substantial funding in accordance with the IEEE mission to advance technology for the benefit of humanity. PELS president, Johan Enslin, states that PELS continues to provide substantial humanitarian funds for EBL in supporting energy access entrepreneurs to be successful and impactful. PELS volunteers have the global reach and expertise to provide technical guidance to entrepreneurs who understand their regional needs.
Sponsors of Empower a Billion Lives include the IEEE Control System Society and the Electronic Packaging Society. The outside sponsor of this Global Final is Endeavour, an infrastructure innovation company that invents and invests in breakthrough technologies to make digital infrastructure faster and more agile while transforming it into a large-scale solution for climate change and water scarcity. Jakob Carnemark, CEO of Endeavour, said “Expanding access to reliable, affordable energy is one of the world’s most pressing challenges, and Endeavour is proud to support initiatives that move us closer to that goal. Empower a Billion Lives plays a vital role in surfacing practical, scalable, field-tested solutions for communities that need them most. At Endeavour, we’re working to invent and deploy infrastructure technologies that make energy systems more efficient, more resilient, and more sustainable—and we’re inspired by the creativity and commitment this competition brings to advancing global energy access in a rapidly evolving energy landscape.”

PELS provides all the organizational and administrative support allowing for 100% of all funds donated to Empower a Billion Lives to go directly to team support and prizes.
Jelena Popovic, EBL Global Steering Chair said “Today, more than ever, the energy access sector needs innovations that can enable scale, unlock new applications, and reach every community. The Empower a Billion Lives 2025 winner demonstrate high-potential innovations in e-mobility, the agrifood-energy nexus, energy resilience, and more – poised to scale and deliver impact in their countries and beyond.”
The $150k Grand Prize was awarded to Team Emergi of Liberia. Emergi is a decentralized, solar-powered e-mobility platform designed to electrify last-mile transport in West Africa while creating dignified, income-generating opportunities for women.

Six $50k Track Prizes were awarded for the following categories:
Automation Track Winner: Oversight from Sri Lanka
Energy Supply Track Winner: Peco Power from South Africa
End-Use of Energy Track Winner: SheTOSS from Senegal
Local Entrepreneurship Track Winner: Munkayalo Agrotech from Uganda
Energy Resilience Track Winner: Atutu from Myanmar
Enabling Concept Track Winner: Seed Center from Germany
The Student and Academic Team winners were awarded $30k each:
Student Team Winner: Ensource from China
Academic Team Winner: Lahore University from Pakistan

Five $5k Honorable Mentions were awarded:
EmpowerAR from Argentina
Rumo from Tanzania
SOS Energie from Burkina Faso
VAAV Innovations from Nigeria
Vittoria Technology from South Africa

About IEEE
IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
About The IEEE Power Electronics Society
The IEEE Power Electronics Society has over 30 years of facilitating and guiding the development and innovation in the control of electrical power and is the organizing society for Empower a Billion Lives, a biennial Global Competition to crowdsource solutions to energy access.

Jane Celusak
IEEE-PELS
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