Quinn Talks Green Energy in Oak Park

Gov. Pat Quinn stood below the LED accent lighting and atop the recycled concrete inside a Madison Street Walgreens in Oak Park, lauding the Deerfield-based chain's renewed interest in eco-conscious choices. 

"It's a very important time to celebrate what Walgreens sees as the future," he said."And this is the future."

Quinn made a stop at the store Tuesday to highlight Earth Week.

The Walgreens at 811 W. Madison St. is the chain's first that employs geothermal technology to provide the store's energy. According to the Walgreens corporate website:

...the system harnesses the earth’s heat utilizing a network of four closed-loop boreholes installed to depths of 650 feet, and a heat exchange system with the building that is controlled by Indie Energy EnergyLoop technology. A water-based heat transfer liquid exchanges heating and cooling energy with the earth, which provides a constant temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Inside the store, the geothermal heat pump and refrigeration systems pull heating energy from the fluid, or reject heat to the fluid to cool. The EnergyLoop system monitors and optimizes this exchange in real-time to provide the maximum energy efficiency.

Company officials on Tuesday said the geothermal system has trimmed energy use at the Oak Park location by 60 percent. The store has also installed dimming systems and LED bulbs for lighting, a special floor comprised of recycled materials and an innovative system allowing its bathroom hand dryers to be powered by lights inside. 

"We're really proud that Walgreens has made a commitment to a green way of thinking and a green way of thinking in Illinois," Quinn said. 

Village president David Pope credited Walgreens and policy makers and the state and local levels for a commitment to green energy. 

"The opportunity to be able to take old buildings and retrofit them in environmentally responsible ways is a tremendous...opportunity for us to be smart and to be green while at the same time doing so in a way that's profitable for corporations," Pope said.

But the store's internal features were only part of the governor's drug store tour. 

Outside the building, Quinn marveled at the electric car charging station in the pharmacy's parking lot, the first in Oak Park.

The charging device, manufactured by the San Diego-based 350Green, is a "level 2" charging station and can provide 25 miles of range for every hour of charge time.

It's just one of many that will be installed at upward of 30 Chicagoland Walgreens stores, and one of 280 charging stations to be placed throughout the state in 2011.