'Amazing piece of technology': solar 'traffic controller' for apartments wins top Australian design award

A small white box that works like a 'traffic controller for solar' has won the top prize at Australia's 2026 Good Design Awards. The device, called SolShare, was made by a Melbourne company called Allume Energy. It allows apartments in the same building to share power from one rooftop solar system — no messy wiring or extra equipment needed. SolShare also won a separate award for sustainability, making it a double winner on the night.

Dr Brandon Gien, chair of Good Design Australia, called SolShare 'an amazing piece of technology' and a beautifully designed solution to a tricky problem. He said that millions of Australians live in apartments and have never been able to enjoy the savings that come from rooftop solar panels. 'SolShare is a clever Australian design innovation that addresses that problem in a practical way, and it is already delivering benefits at significant scale,' Gien said.

Good design, Gien explained, has to be more than just good-looking. A product also needs to work well and have a positive effect on people's lives. He compared it to a kettle: a nice-looking kettle is useless if it cannot boil water. Innovation and impact on society are among the most important things judges look for each year.

The Australian Good Design Awards have a long history, dating back to 1958, making them one of the oldest design awards in the world. Past winners of the top prize include the Cochlear hearing implant in 2000, special economy-class airplane seats for Qantas in 2009, and the Flow Hive beehive design in 2016. Hollywood director James Cameron also won in 2012 for the Deepsea Challenger, a deep-sea submarine he helped design and build. This year, SolShare stood out from more than 1,000 entries from Australia and around the world.

A special gathering space in Melbourne's City Square won best in discipline for the built environment. The space was designed by Greenshoot Consulting, working closely with Wurundjeri elders. It was created to welcome visitors to Country, keep First Peoples' cultural knowledge alive, and make the Woi-wurrung language visible in a public place.

A young designer under 30, Xavier Earls, won the next-generation designers award with his Bush Cradle — a modular habitat system for native animals. The system uses four pieces that snap together in different ways to create nest boxes or shelters for a range of species. Earls explained that native animals in Australia are losing their natural habitats, such as tree hollows and fallen logs, faster than nature can replace them. Gien praised it, saying: 'What I love about it is that it's designing for a non-human, it's designing for nature.'

Several other winners focused on reducing waste and helping the environment. Finnish company FabPatch won the fashion category for a rub-on patch that repairs torn fabric. An Australian design called No Wrap created a reusable system for securing heavy pallets without plastic wrap. Holy Carp, another Australian design, made a plastic-free, compostable version of the fish-shaped soy-sauce packets often found with sushi.