Traditional unrefined or unprocessed energy sources are heavily dependent on the majority of unelectrified rural communities. These energy sources include firewood, agricultural residues, animal dung and charcoal to meet their daily energy needs for cooking, heating and lighting. Nepal is one of the least developed countries in the world with 83% of the population living in rural areas. The energy consumption pattern in Nepal is negligible, unreliable and dominated by traditional biomass based energy production. The rural population of Gorkha has been forced to use inefficient and health-hazardous solid biomass energy for their domestic needs due to lack of financial and technical capacity. Nepal has water resources estimated at a theoretical hydroelectric potential of 83,000 megawatts, of which only 42,000 megawatts are accessible. However, despite the country's significant hydroelectric potential, it has not been able to effectively use this energy due to financial and technical limitations. Forests, which constitute one of the main biomass energy resources, have already been used beyond their sustainable capacity and are becoming a scarce resource.