Walgreens Building Net Zero Energy Store

The Walgreen Co. (Deerfield, Ill.) is building an experimental “net zero energy store” that it hopes will produce more energy than it consumes.

“We’re just like most American homes where we have become more reliant on servers, computers and monitors,” said Menno Enters, Walgreen director of energy and sustainability. “We need to reduce our electricity consumption.”

The store under construction in Evanston, Ill., north of Chicago, will include more than 800 solar panels on the roof, two 35-foot wind turbines and a geothermal energy system dug hundreds of feet beneath the store’s foundation.

Walgreen building planners and engineers estimate the net zero store will use about 200,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity over a year’s time while generating about 256,000 kilowatt-hours during the same period.

“There are a lot of other retailers that consume less energy per square foot, but Walgreen does sell it all, so it makes a net zero store much more challenging to pull off,” Enters told The New York Times. “If Walgreen can do this, a lot of other retailers can do this.”

The cost of building the new store will reportedly be about twice that of a typical new store. Over time, however, executives expect to recoup the extra costs from reductions in the store’s energy use, tax credits and rebates from utility companies.