RTS have produced a short film to showcase its industry-leading wood fuel business – with an emphasis on the high-quality service provided to schools, hospitals and businesses.
RTS Wood Fuel produces 30,000 tonnes of woodchip annually, which fuels around 150 biomass boilers, from as far north as Inverness and as far south as Lincoln. This includes NHS Hospitals, Schools, Industry, Public Buildings, Hotels and Private homes, some requiring multiple daily deliveries.
The short film shows RTS delivering wood chip to a large hospital (Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife) and a high school (Bertha Park in Perth) – and the significant investment made at its wood fuel HQ in Madderty, Perthshire.
The RTS Wood fuel team explains the seamless process of bringing in lower-value wood from RTS-managed forests, chipping it, drying it, and then delivering it to customers across Scotland and beyond.
Mike Coles, RTS Wood Fuel Director, says: “It’s really important to tell the story of how we produce and deliver low carbon heating fuel from local forests to our clients and future clients. A lot of the positives associated with Biomass have been forgotten or overshadowed by negative headlines”
In the film, Mr Coles says RTS delivers the “highest possible standards of quality, sustainability and reliability”.
RTS fuels are registered under the UK Woodsure Quality Assurance Scheme, its depots registered on the Biomass Suppliers List and it provides a fully quality-assured solution under the Renewable Heat Incentive.
Ryan Whiteford, Account Director for Equans, at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, says in the video: “We’ve been getting wood fuel from RTS now for well over 10 years – providing about a third of our heat demand in a 550-bed hospital. The relationship with RTS forestry is excellent. It’s one of partnership and collaboration, and we hope it goes forward into the longer term.”
Josie O’Donnell, Wood Fuel Technical Assistant for RTS, describes the process of wood coming into the yard, being weighed, chipped, and dried, then delivered. She says: “When the fresh timber comes on site, it’s around 40-50% moisture content, and part of our process is to get that moisture content down by drying the timber – so it’s around 25%, or whatever the boilers we are servicing need to run properly.”
Andrew O’Neill, Wood Fuel Manager, says: “We’ve recently invested in a new state of the art boiler system here, with its own drying floor, which allows us to increase our drying capacity. “
Quality is at the heart of everything we do here at RTS. There are very careful checks at every stage of the process through from the production into drying and then quality control.
RTS will be making a further investment in Combined Heat and Power generation at Wood Fuel HQ at the end of 2026. This will mean all the heat and power requirements for our Wood Fuel business will be met in-house using renewable biomass fuels.
You can watch a shorter version on our social media channels.