About Max Opray

Journalist Max Opray joined SolarQuotes in 2025 as editor, bringing with him over a decade of experience covering green energy. Across his career Max has won multiple awards for his feature stories for The Guardian and The Saturday Paper, fact-checked energy claims for Australian Associated Press, launched the climate solutions newsletter Climactic, and covered the circular economy for sustainability thinktank Metabolic. Max also reported on table tennis at the 2016 Rio Olympics — and is patiently waiting for any tenuous excuse to include his ping pong expertise in a SolarQuotes story.

Five Star Performance? How To Spot Fake Solar Reviews

Reviews of an installer

A bunch of reviews of an installer all being published at the same time can be a red flag.

Every fortnight, the SolarQuotes Vetting Council convenes to undertake a forensic analysis of the companies asking to join our list of approved installers of solar, batteries and EV chargers. The investigation pours over every clue available, including the most obvious: online reviews. But in this age of bot farms and customer incentives, how can you tell if a review is legitimate or not?

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Australia Finally Charts Course To Bidirectional EV Charging Bounty

A bidirectional EV charger charging a Nissan Leaf

Bidirectional charging has long been the white whale of electric vehicle owners in Australia, and at long last ARENA has released a chart revealing where this elusive leviathan of energy storage can be found.

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Solar Batteries On Special: Should You Trust Aldi To Power Your Home?

The front facade of an Aldi supermarket

An Aldi supermarket in Adelaide.

Good old Aldi — the home of supermarket savings, shelves lined with classic grocery staples like milk, bread, cheese, and… wait… is that an entire solar-and-battery system on sale next to the dog food?

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Aiko Launches Its Most Ruthlessly Efficient Solar Panel Yet

If you’ve only just had the most efficient residential solar panels in Australia installed on your roof, unfortunately you won’t be able to enjoy that bragging point for much longer: Aiko Solar claims to have (again) broken their own record with what they claim is the first residential panel in Australia to exceed 24% module efficiency.

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Amber’s Charge HQ Deal: Peace At Last For Stressed EV Owners

 

An EV charging in a drivewayAmber has acquired Charge HQ, in a move that could reduce the stress levels of customers trying to charge their EVs under the energy retailer’s volatile wholesale market billing system.

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Introducing SolarQuotes Editor Max Opray

A stylized depiction of a man with spectacles

Hello folks,

My name is Max Opray, and I’ve just started in the new role of SolarQuotes editor. For over a decade I’ve been covering green energy as a journalist, and I’m thrilled to be enlisting with an organisation that has played such a key role in Australia’s solar revolution.

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