One award, five categories, 15 winners and an abundance of innovative and intelligent ideas, products, services and projects:

Thais Teixeira works as a Technical Consultant at EPE (Energy Research Office), where she coordinates regional interconnection planning studies, in the Transmission Department. Her fields of research and work include HVDC transmission systems, renewable energy integration and energy storage. Teixeira holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in electrical engineering, both from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and a postgraduate degree in project management from the Pontificial Catholic University of Minas Gerais (PUC-MG). Her most recent professional experience was coordinating the planning study that recommended a new HVDC system for the Brazilian electricity grid, which was published in 2023 by EPE. Her main previous research was related to energy storage, during her masters, which resulted in the publication of a scientific paper in na international journal. Her previous work experience includes the ONS (National System Operator) and a Project Consulting Company, where she worked with computational modeling for dynamic security assesment of power systems.

Ricardo Estefano Rosa is a Production Engineer with a specialization in Renewable Energies and an MBA in Strategic Business Management from FGV. He has almost 30 years' experience in business development and energy solutions. At WEG since 2013, he was Head of Engineering until 2015 and since then he has dedicated himself to developing new businesses, always focused on the energy transition. He currently acts as Coordinator of the Storage WG at ABSOLAR, is a member of the Board of the Brazilian Association of Energy Storage Solutions - ABSAE and leads WEG's Battery Energy Storage Systems business.

He is an electrical engineer with a degree from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), a master's and doctorate from the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) and a post-doctorate from the UFABC. He has carried out various research projects and publications focusing on the control and connection of distributed energy resources - DER, power quality and microgrids. He currently works as a Technical Regulatory Analyst at the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association - ABSOLAR.

Electrical engineer, specialist in expansion planning and regulation of the electricity sector, executive MBA in electricity sector business from FGV, currently studying for a master's degree in energy planning at Coppe/UFRJ. Regulatory coordinator at Quantum Participações, the holding company responsible for the Brookfield group's energy transmission concessions. Manager of the technical-economic analysis project for the insertion of battery storage systems into the basic grid.

A researcher at the SENAI Institute for Innovation in Electrochemistry, he is leading initiatives in lithium-ion batteries, sodium ions and supercapacitors, conducting RD&I projects aimed at producing high-performance national materials for these technologies. With a degree in Chemistry and a Master's in Materials Science from Aix-Marseille Université in France, as well as an MBA in Project Management from UNISENAI-PR, he has a decade of experience in industrial innovation. His current goal is to foster a Brazilian innovation ecosystem around lithium-ion batteries. Since 2018, he has played a key role in planning and implementing pilot lines for the production of battery cells, consolidating his expertise in the various battery chemistries on the market and their manufacturing processes.