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 — when you think of a clothing store — but Walgreen does sell it all, so it makes a net zero store much more challenging to pull off,” Mr. Enters said. “If Walgreen can do this, a lot of other retailers can do this.”

The net zero concept is part of the retail giant’s overall sustainability plan to reduce energy use by 20 percent by 2020 across all of its more than 8,000 stores, including Duane Reade stores in the New York area. That goal is also the target of the Department of Energy’s “Better Buildings Challenge” initiative, which President Obama established in 2011 to encourage energy conservation across the country and Walgreen has signed on to.

The effort is not without its challenges, or additional costs.

The cost of building the new store will be about twice that of a typical new store, though Walgreen executives would not disclose financial details. 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.

A spokeswoman for the Energy Department said the agency was unaware of any completed net zero projects among more than 110 public and private commercial, industrial and governmental energy conservation projects that are part of the government program to reduce consumption.