MottiMikko makes firewood with the Palax C900 firewood processor in eastern Finland

A customer story from North Karelia, Finland

Mikko Jaatinen has been working as a firewood entrepreneur in North Karelia, Finland, for 9 years. His company MottiMikko has produced firewood with the Palax C900 firewood processor for three years now. Mikko is very satisfied with his machine. He chose the Palax C900 circular saw machine because it is very fast, the hard metal blade has a very long service interval, and the amount of sawdust is low. This year, Mikko has already made 1000 solid cubic meters of firewood.

Firewood is chopped and dried using solar energy

From April until September, firewood production and mechanical drying take place entirely with solar energy. The solar panels themselves have been producing electricity since February 2021. In 2021, the solar panels have produced 11,000 kilowatts of electricity. Mechanical drying guarantees high-quality and ecological firewood. Mikko invested in solar energy panels three years ago, and he has calculated that the payback period for the panels is about five years. Renewable energy is also of interest to others; AgroRES project partners visited MottiMikko in November this year. The goal of the AgroRES project is to promote renewable energy in agriculture and rural areas.

In spring, mechanical drying takes place in large piles of firewood. Each pile includes about 200 solid cubics of firewood. When the temperature rises above +5 degrees, the firewood is dried under negative pressure. Drying the firewood in the large piles takes about 25 days. The most important factor for firewood is dryness; the firewood ignite and burn best when the moisture content of the firewood is 15–25%.

The firewood made in the winter is dried in a heat kiln built by Miko. Due to the increase in the price of electricity, the consumption of firewood has been huge this year. MottiMikko advises everyone that if the firewood warehouse is almost empty, go and buy firewood immediately, because even the firewood sellers’ stocks are starting to run out.