Solar Landscape Co-Founders Keegan, Gross Named EY Entrepreneur Award National Finalists and New Jersey Winners
Entrepreneurship is nothing new to Solar Landscape co-founders and lifelong friends Shaun Keegan and Corey Gross.
Since childhood Keegan and Gross have been engaging in business pursuits together.
So it was fitting that EY recently named the two as national finalists and New Jersey winners for its Entrepreneur of the Year Award, an annual recognition that is considered the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs.
The award, which has a 40-year history, puts a spotlight high-growth companies like Solar Landscape and founders like Keegan and Gross who lift up their employees and communities to create a more equitable and sustainable world.
They will now be considered for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year National Award, to be announced in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum®.
“The 2024 Entrepreneur Of The Year New Jersey Award winners are exceptional business leaders fueling innovation within their industries and growth within their companies,” said Joel Wagner, EOY New Jersey Program Co-Director.
“It’s an honor to be recognized, especially given the caliber of the other finalists,” said Gross.
“Solar Landscape’s mission is to make clean energy affordable and accessible to all. We’re as energized today by the promise of community solar as we were when we first heard about it a few years ago and decided to pursue it with everything we had,” explained Keegan.
Since Keegan and Gross founded the company in 2012, Solar Landscape has deployed over 400 megawatts of renewable energy projects. It is now leasing more than 100 million square feet of commercial and logistics rooftops nationwide for solar from leading global companies like Prologis.
That 100 million square feet of leased rooftops equates to more than a gigawatt of solar, or enough to provide power to 175,000 households – most of which are low- and moderate-income families – once the community solar projects are built. The projects also create good-paying jobs in the clean energy workforce. In November Solar Landscape committed to creating 100 new jobs in 2024 alone.
As the leading U.S. commercial and community solar developer, Solar Landscape empowers the world’s largest commercial real estate companies to expand the use of renewable energy while making the clean energy landscape more equitable.
The company partners with commercial real estate companies to build solar projects on commercial and industrial rooftops. Many of these installations are community solar projects. Residents in communities surrounding the building can subscribe to receive the power they generate at a guaranteed discount. This gives those residents – most of whom are low- to moderate-income and live on the frontlines of climate change – a meaningful way to help fight climate change while benefitting from affordable clean energy.
With this model, Solar Landscape is a national example of pairing business success with equitable clean energy. Beginning as a two-person solar company in 2012, it now leads the U.S. market in commercial and community solar development. The company has activated over 50 rooftop projects, and has been approved to build over 350 more nationwide in the months and years to come.
