Write for us

Solar Examiner publishes sponsored articles on residential solar, home batteries, electricity rates and consumer energy costs. Our readers are mostly US homeowners and electricity customers, so every piece has to help them make a decision.

What we publish

Pieces that fit one of our sections:

• Electric Rates: how bills, tariffs, time-of-use plans and rate cases work.
• Equipment: panels, inverters, batteries and monitoring, explained with specifications and documentation.
• Solar Costs & Incentives: installed costs, financing, incentives and payback, with the numbers shown.
• News: dated updates on utility, state and federal energy policy.

Good topics answer a specific question a homeowner is asking, for example how to read an installer proposal, how a state’s export credit works, or how to size a battery for backup.

Sponsored articles

All links in paid content are marked rel="sponsored", as search engines require. We do not sell followed links, link insertions into existing articles, or unlabeled placements.

Energy experts

We occasionally commission articles from utility analysts, engineers, regulators and energy researchers. These pieces carry your name and credentials but no outbound links. Send your credentials and two topics you could cover, not a draft.

Article requirements

• Original and unpublished. Not published anywhere else, including your own site. Not spun or rewritten from another article.
• Length: usually 1,200 to 2,500 words. Long enough to answer the question fully, no longer.
• Sources: every number has a source, a date and a geography. Primary sources first: EIA, DOE, NREL, IRS, state utility commissions and utility tariffs. Link them.
• Location-specific: say which state, utility or tariff a rule applies to. Do not present one utility’s rate as a state average.
• Approved vs proposed: keep rates and policies in effect separate from proposals.
• Calculations shown: if you estimate savings or payback, show the formula and inputs and label it an estimate.
• No guarantees: no promised savings, payback periods or returns.
• No sales copy: no hype, no “best installer” claims, no undisclosed promotion of your own product or company.
• Disclose conflicts: tell us if you work for, or are paid by, any company mentioned in the piece.
• AI-assisted drafts: allowed, but you are responsible for every fact. We reject drafts with unsourced or invented figures.

What we do not accept

• Topics unrelated to energy, solar or electricity costs.
• Casino, gambling, CBD, adult, crypto-trading, payday loan or essay-writing content or links.
• Installer lead-generation pages disguised as articles.
• Product reviews claiming hands-on testing that did not happen.
• Links to sites that are thin, deceptive or unsafe for readers.

Our editing process

1. We review your pitch and reply if it fits.
2. You send the draft as a Google Doc or Markdown file.
3. We fact-check it against its sources and edit for accuracy, clarity and our style. We may ask for changes, cut sections or decline the piece at any stage.
4. We add our own images, internal links and an “as of” date.
5. After publication, we may update or correct the article under our editorial policy and corrections process.

Publication is never guaranteed, including for sponsored articles. If we decline a sponsored piece after review, we refund the fee.

How to pitch

Email [email protected] with the subject line “Pitch: [your topic]” and include:

• A proposed headline and the reader question it answers.
• A 3 to 5 line outline.
• The main primary sources you will use.
• Two links to work you have published.
• Any connection to companies mentioned.

We reply to pitches that fit, usually within a week. See also our affiliate disclosure for how paid content is labeled.