Solar Decathlon winners honoured with UOW reception

The University of Wollongong (UOW) held a reception on Tuesday to celebrate Team UOW Australia’s win at the Solar Decathlon - dubbed the ‘Energy Olympics’ - which was recently held in Datong, China.

The Solar Decathlon is considered to be one of the most important sustainability competitions in the world. Team UOW was the first Australian team in the history of the event to be invited to compete.

Team UOW won the competition with 957.6 of a possible 1000 points - the highest score ever awarded in any Solar Decathlon competition.

The team’s winning entry involved the transformation of a traditional Australian fibro cottage into a highly energy-efficient home through an innovative retrofit. The house - the Illawarra Flame - can produce more energy than it uses and includes features such as solar energy generation; phase change material integrated air heating system; and greywater recycling that uses an artificial wetland built into the garden to filter the water.

Watch a time-lapse video of the Illawarra Flame house construction here.