Agent in Turkey: Rising Eurosilos, Rising Image
As general manager at Archimediz Maritime Services, Consulting and Energy Technologies, Özlem Ünal points out the one essential element that makes a large project such as the Hunutlu Eurosilos work: the human factor. The stunning look of the rising silos at the huge building site, inspired Özlem to write a great article. We are happy to share it with you. Enjoy the read!
The construction of three mammoth Eurosilos is steadily progressing along the Turkish Mediterranean coast near Adana. Each having a diameter of 55 meter, a height of 42,5 meter and a capacity of 100,000 m3, these silos will store imported-coal for the EMBA Coal-fired Power Plant in the coming decades.
Cross cultural connection
Besides ‘Being the biggest order in the history of Eurosilo’ as stated by the Project Manager Patrick Spaas, what else makes this project so important for all of us? Meetings in Turkey, in the Netherlands and in China brought three different business mentalities together to obtain and then execute this project. Anyone who is travelling around the world for business purposes can easily understand what I mean… North European, Mediterranean and Far East business cultures are completely different from each other. Relatively short, direct to the point meetings versus long discussions, short lunch breaks versus business lunches under the sun possibly with a nice view, ‘time is a value’ versus ‘take your time’ approaches and alike are to be faced and appreciated if fruitful results are expected by all.
The easiest part generally takes place during courtesy visits. And then? Initiatives to convince the client about the necessity of deploying the Eurosilo storage solution in such an environmentally sensitive location on one hand and the requirement of the client on the other to achieve one of the most environmentally friendly coal-fired power plants ever, with high capacity, reliability and efficiency, definitely led to the existence of this project.
June ’20
Focused transformation
When I visited the construction site at Hunutlu for the first time on 21 March 2019, there were only several container units around. And soil handling machinery for land preparations. Site offices were under preparation and the beautiful Mediterranean view was only available from the very upper level which could only be reached by car.
When the Coronavirus infectious disease, namely Covid-19, was first reported in December 2019 and identified in January 2020, it only involved a few countries. However, it quickly and seriously affected the whole world. This deadly pandemic did not only bring hesitation to use flights to travel to different destinations and having face-to face meetings, but it also brought serious restrictions in daily life. By then it was difficult to make visits to Hunutlu due to the strict regulations which took place at project site as well. However, a drone, my very favourite technological flying object, helped to follow the site works from a distance. The first drone images of the Eurosilos came about in the last weeks of June. Then, images of the first week of September and last weeks of October were already amazing!
September ’20
‘Forget all the reasons why it won’t work… Believe the one reason why it will!’
Yes, today three huge Eurosilos are rising at the construction site at a surprising speed. Just have a look at the great images from June to October and read the above statement again… Great information technology, I mean smart working, distant audio-visual meetings with recently popular MS Teams, utilisation of Drones in following land developments, no-cost communication tools such as WhatsApp have helped enormously to keep going on this project. These tools helped to overcome health-related living and working restrictions, logistic difficulties regarding the delivery of internal equipment from Europe to Istanbul, Adana and finally to the building site.
October ’20
The Human Factor
However, the one thing which I strongly believe is much more valuable than all the above, has been and still is: the human factor. The sensitivity towards business ethics among partners and mutual understanding let this project go on successfully so far. Furthermore, wide experience, will and courage of engineers, technicians, workers and many others contribute a lot as well. This project – like many others – shows how geographical, historical, climatic and many other differences can blend, and if such are to be seen as richness to execute projects.
I consider the realisation of such a big Eurosilo project in Turkey not only as an example for other developing countries, where niche environmental solutions are looked for. It also demonstrates how technology, experience and good will act together to create successful results for all. I trust and hope that time will prove my words right, when we see these Eurosilos in operation soon…!
Özlem Ünal General manager Archimediz Maritime Services,
ESI Eurosilo Turkey
Consulting & Energy Technologies
