Scott was part of the University of Wollongong team that built the international award-winning Illawarra Flame House —the first Australian team to enter an international Solar Decathlon. Scott was TEAM UOW’s design, construction, logistics, and work health and safety manager.

The Solar Decathlon challenges university teams to design, build and operate solar-powered houses. It began in 2001 in the United States, was picked up by Europe and then, for the first time in 2013, by China.

Team UOW selected to transform a humble Aussie fibro home into a modern, net-zero-energy, low-impact, attractive and incredibly liveable 21st century home powered by sunshine. The design makes the most of Australia’s natural environment through water efficiency, solar energy harvesting, passive design and advanced heating and cooling ventilation systems.

It took Team UOW four months to build the Illawarra Flame House. Once built, the house went on display in Wollongong, attracting more than 1,500 curious visitors.

The house was then disassembled and packaged into seven shipping containers, travelling more than 9000 kilometres over sea and 700 kilometres over land before making it safely to China where it was judged against 20 other entries from various parts of the world—against 10 strict criteria.

Team UOW’s entry to the Solar Decathlon China 2013 not only won, it scored more points than any other Solar Decathlon team had ever won in the US and Europe competitions.

When the competition ended, Team UOW disassembled the house and packed it up once more. It was shipped back home where it is now at the Innovation Campus of the University of Wollongong where it is on display and being used for continual research.