By Kurt Lindhardt Nielsen, Sales Manager
SILO Construction - Global Green Developer (GGD)

 

Visionary and innovative players in association

If you have been walking past the new port areas, you may have noticed the new large warehouses, which in many ways appear to be built of large building blocks. The warehouses are the result of a string of innovative solutions and foresight from several actors. What do you do if you don’t think the right solution exists in the market? You develop your own solution! This is how we in Global Green Developer (GGD) began our SILO Construction department, which has recently moved into the new port areas in Frederikshavn with 10,000 square metres for storage and production.

In 2014, we searched for a flexible, solid and economically sustainable solution to store biomass most efficiently and dry. This is where the idea for our unique concrete building blocks came about. We simply could not find a product in the market that met our requirements. The solution was therefore to develop our own product. Roughly speaking, these are overgrown building blocks made of concrete.

The blocks weigh up to 1.5 tons, but are easy to assemble, disassemble and move with the right tools. Despite the great flexibility, the bricks are ideal for building solid walls that are pressure-resistant up to 8 metres in height with a strength of 15 tons per meter.

Based on expected post-usage
The overgrown building blocks can now be found at Port of Frederikshavn, where they form the framework for the 10,000 square metres we have established on the port. The port has dared to build the warehouses despite not having any agreements on the use of the warehouses, when the agreement between Port of Frederikshavn and us was signed almost four years ago.

We established a joint company for the operation of the warehouses and without prior agreements or signed contracts for the use of the warehouses, we decided to build five warehouses on the expected post-usage. This could only be done because of the visions of Port of Frederikshavn and GGD, and the strategy has been a success: The first load of wood pellets is already under roof.

Securing the future
In many ways the foresight mentioned  reflects the potential of the warehouses. The warehouses allow, for example, to buy biomass in large quantities when the price is low, to be stored and redistributed later when the need arises. When the warehouses are empty, they can be used for something completely different. This means that tenants and/or product groups can be changed at days’ notice.

With the new storage options, the port can now take advantage of the large water depth when vessels come in with cargo for storage in the new warehouses. For us, it is yet another opportunity to show how flexible and multi-usable our warehouses are. So, it is pure win/win for the port, for us and for the future.
 

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This post is part of Port of Frederikshavn’s blog universe, which we have called THE PORT VOICE. The blog has been put into the world to give the word to businesses and business partners of the port. The purpose is to create a channel, where we can share knowledge, passion and demeanour in an inclusive, engaging and non-profit way. The goal is to have as many businesses, organisations and partners of the port as possible to contribute in order to obtain a platform, where we can learn more about each other, pass on learning, wisdom or demeanour and invite one another into the world, each one of us find ourselves in.