Nepal is one of the least developed countries with more than 80% of its population

residing in rural areas.

It has no oil, gas, or coal reserves, and its energy sector is dominated by the traditional
energy sources like firewood, crop residues, and animal dung mainly for domestic use.

The majority of rural populations are meeting their energy needs by burning biomass in
traditional stoves, and mostly fossil-derived fuels are imported. Also, the continuous
increase of petroleum imports has an adverse impact on its fragile economy.

The major sources of renewable energy are mini and micro hydropower, solar energy,
various forms of biomass energy, biogas and wind energy etc. But still around 85% of
the total final energy consumption in Nepal is met by traditional biomass energy and
around 28% of households in Nepal do not have access to electricity.

Nepal aims to achieve universal access to clean, reliable and affordable renewable
energy solutions by 2030. It is expected to reduce dependence on traditional and
imported energy by increasing access to renewable energy.

The use of solar energy is more reliable than traditional electricity in Nepal. Private
installations of solar panels are more frequent in urban areas used as a backup during
the power outages

On average, Nepal has 6.8 sunshine hours per day with the intensity of solar radiation
ranging from 3.9 to 5.1 kWh per meter square, with a commercial potential of solar
power for grid connection estimated to be 2,100 MW.

In 2015, Nepal and the World Bank signed an agreement to invest USD 130 million to
develop a 25 MW solar project that will eventually be connected to the national grid. It is
the largest renewable energy plant planned in
the country. The wind potential is available in
the mountainous region.

Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment

project has made an attempt to map the wind
resource potential in Nepal and has shown a
very good prospect of wind energy with the
prediction of about 3,000 MW of wind energy.