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Walgreens to build first Net Zero Energy store north of Chicago

D

dmcowen674

No Lifer
3-17-2013

http://hothardware.com/News/Walgree...-with-Solar-Wind-and-Geothermal-Technologies/

Walgreens To Build First Self-Powered Retail Store with Solar, Wind, and Geothermal Technologies



The company announced plans for the first net zero energy retail store.


The store is slated to be built at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Keeney Street in Evanston, Illinois, where an existing Walgreens is currently being demolished. The technologies Walgreens is plotting to implement in this new super-green store will include solar panels and wind turbines to generate power; geothermal technology for heat; and efficient energy consumption with LED lighting, daylight harvesting, and “ultra-high-efficiency” refrigeration.


What’s truly impressive about this retail store is that it will actually generate more power than it consumes. Engineering estimates suggest that the location will produce 256,000 kilowatt hours per year while using just 200,000.
 
This poses bad news for the average citizen.

Com-Ed will no doubt raise rates to make up for the shortfall from Businesses
 
dmcowen674 said:
This poses bad news for the average citizen.

Com-Ed will no doubt raise rates to make up for the shortfall from Businesses
Click to expand...

It would be quite easy for power companies to lobby (buy off) local government to protect themselves.

In fact if this is a success I would not be surprised if all of a sudden we see new local zone laws pop up all over the nation restricting or making it prohibitive for companies and private dwellings to follow suit.
 
dmcowen674 said:
This poses bad news for the average citizen.

Com-Ed will no doubt raise rates to make up for the shortfall from Businesses
Click to expand...

I dont even think that should be our main concern.

We should be more worried about the monopoly the AMA has on medicine. Thats the cause of our out of control health costs.
 
FaaR said:
The ROI will be being able to sustain our current level of development and technology for more than a few more generations.

Are you happy with that?
Click to expand...

I don't know what that means.

Is the building actually "green" or not? If it's just a heavily subsidized feel good building, then I'd rather they just built a regular energy efficient building.
 
LTC8K6 said:
Yeah, what's the ROI?

The estimates are usually way off when they are trying to sell something.
Click to expand...

In this case they don't care, they are using it as a test bed for a ton of new technology to see if it's worthwhile (saves money) and for the PR. Even if they only implement a couple of the ideas the company could save lots of money across some 8,000 stores.

Walgreens in general has been upping their game the last few years design wise and branching out in their urban flagship stores.
 
LTC8K6 said:
I don't know what that means.
Click to expand...
It means - in a perhaps opaque, somewhat roundabout way, admittedly - that we currently consume energy at an unsustainable rate. We will run out of easily harvestable energy sources soon; not tomorrow or even in the next few decades probably. But still soon, historically. Which means we'll have to start changing our behavior, quit looking at everything from a "ROI" perspective, because ROI is what got us where we are now in the first place.

We need to think about the future viability of us as a species, rather than just the next quarterly report.

Is the building actually "green" or not?
Click to expand...
The OP seems to claim the building is a net producer of energy, so it should be, provided the same care was taken during its construction.
 
Socio said:
It would be quite easy for power companies to lobby (buy off) local government to protect themselves.

In fact if this is a success I would not be surprised if all of a sudden we see new local zone laws pop up all over the nation restricting or making it prohibitive for companies and private dwellings to follow suit.
Click to expand...

In 1978 I had a bumper sticker that read;
Welcome to San Diego, Owned and Operated by SDGE
Who do you think is really behind the installation of smart meters, and is
ENFORCED by the police? We were also billed monthly, even if the power was off.
 
Newbian said:
I wonder how much this costs compared to building a normal one.

Hopefully they show the difference.
Click to expand...

Subsidies from the Feds and their fetish for Solyndra-style boondoggles might actually reduce Walgreen's costs below "standard" construction; similar to how GE building "Eco-Star" appliances helps them pay a very low federal corporate income tax rate.

I also wouldn't be shocked if Obama's administration provided a "grant" to help defray the costs, or an Illinois legislator inserted an earmark into legislation basically giving the money to Walgreens to build this "store of the future."
 
glenn1 said:
Subsidies from the Feds and their fetish for Solyndra-style boondoggles might actually reduce Walgreen's costs below "standard" construction; similar to how GE building "Eco-Star" appliances helps them pay a very low federal corporate income tax rate.

I also wouldn't be shocked if Obama's administration provided a "grant" to help defray the costs, or an Illinois legislator inserted an earmark into legislation basically giving the money to Walgreens to build this "store of the future."
Click to expand...

So you're just going to make bullshit up then?
 
It will be interesting to see how this works out considering what the temperatures are in Evanston during the winter.

http://news.walgreens.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5717

Walgreens plans to generate electricity and reduce its usage by more than 40 percent through several technologies in the store including:

  • more than 800 roof-top solar panels,
  • two wind turbines,
  • geothermal energy obtained by drilling 550-feet into the ground below the store, where temperatures are more constant and can be tapped to heat or cool the store in winter and summer,
  • LED lighting and daylight harvesting,
  • carbon dioxide refrigerant for heating, cooling and refrigeration equipment,
  • and energy efficient building materials.
Engineering estimates -- which can vary due to factors such as weather, store operations and systems performance -- indicate that the store will use 200,000 kilowatt hours per year of electricity while generating 256,000 kilowatt hours per year.
Click to expand...
 
Londo_Jowo said:
It will be interesting to see how this works out considering what the temperatures are in Evanston during the winter.
Click to expand...
It's actually not that difficult to build houses that are entirely passively heated and function well just from waste heat from human beings and their electrical equipment, even in wintertime sub-arctic conditions.

...But then again we could just regress and install coal-fired furnaces in every house. If it worked in the 1800s, it'll work today as well won't it!
 
FaaR said:
It's actually not that difficult to build houses that are entirely passively heated and function well just from waste heat from human beings and their electrical equipment, even in wintertime sub-arctic conditions.
Click to expand...

Yet those places don't have customer's opening the doors letting the warm or cool air out and being replaced by the extreme conditions on the other side. I'm somewhat optimistic that this will work, just not sure if it will be as efficient as Walgreens/designers estimate.

FaaR said:
...But then again we could just regress and install coal-fired furnaces in every house. If it worked in the 1800s, it'll work today as well won't it!
Click to expand...

🙄 When all else fails post some asinine response.
 
The winter, and the constantly opening and closing doors, do pose a problem. I wonder if they took that into account.


EDIT: When I first read the thread title, I thought they were talking about NetZero, the Internet dial up company...
 
cybrsage said:
The winter, and the constantly opening and closing doors, do pose a problem. I wonder if they took that into account.


EDIT: When I first read the thread title, I thought they were talking about NetZero, the Internet dial up company...
Click to expand...

Maybe they have the double set of doors like a lot of big commercial places do so the room that needs to be heated up more often is much smaller.
 
cybrsage said:
The winter, and the constantly opening and closing doors, do pose a problem. I wonder if they took that into account.
Click to expand...

Walgreen's is based in IL (less than 30 minutes from Evanston). I think they are aware it gets cold here.
 
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