March 19, 2013

Walgreens Constructs a self-powered retail store

by Gareth Mankoo

Sustainable energy solutions help cutdown on many dangerous factors including carbon footprint, cost and natural fuels. It’s good to know that organizations are going that extra mile to cover the bigger picture and create a sustainable model for existence. Walgreens is leading this with the conceptualisation of the world’s first self-powered retail store. What can safely be addressed as the net-zero energy store, this facility is to be built at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Keeney Street in Evanston, Illinois. It will contain solar panels and wind turbines to generate clean power and geothermal technology for heating. The little energy that will be used will be consumed at optimum levels with the help opf LED lighting, daylight harvesting, and “ultra-high-efficiency” refrigeration. It is estimated that the store’s concept could help generate more power than it consumes. A total produce of 256,000 kilowatt hours per year is expected to cater to a use of just 200,000.


The Vice-President of the store chain, Thomas Connolly said, “We are investing in developing a net-zero store so we can learn the best way to bring these features to our other stores, because we operate 8,000 stores, we believe our pursuit of green technology can have a significant positive impact on the nation’s environment.” We hope that this could inspire not just commercial settings but residential building innovations as well.

[Via – Hothardware]