A review of the research conducted on the subject of Iran’s development in recent years confirms the significance and necessity of paying attention to sustainable rural development as one of the fundamental bases for urban and national sustainable development. Through a review of the pathology of today’s villages, some issues are encountered like physical, economic, cultural-social, environmental and energy supply problems. Paying attention to each of these problems and giving proper suggestions can help the improvement of the quality and the nature of Iran’s villages and can pave the way for their renewed prosperity and development.

Since securing the whole or part of energy demand of human communities from renewable energy resources is one of the principles of sustainable development, the issue and question of current research is defined as the study and evaluation of biogas technology for supplying portions of energy demand of stockbreeding-based rural communities of Iran from a low price energy source and solving the environmental problems due to incorrect management on collecting and discharging rural waste. The first part of this paper is devoted to a literature review which introduces in brief the biogas technology and discusses its potential advantages. The second part of the paper is a case study of Galesh-Kolam village, in Gilan province in northern Iran. The main reasons why this village was chosen to be studied were its priority in the relevant plan for rural waste management, the serious problem of contamination of local underground water, having no access to the national network of urban gas, and the stockbreeding livelihood of its people.

The paper here investigates the potential of using biogas technology to reduce the dependence of the rural families to their current energy supply resources. A field survey is conducted to do this. A sample of the households of the village was selected and the number of their cows and sheep was counted. The possible produced biogas by this amount of cows and sheep was calculated and its equivalent energy value determined.

In order to calculate the probable saving in the households ' current energy supply, two methods were used. In the first method, the energy demand in the cookery and hot water sections of households were calculated. According to the calculations done, the biogas technology could provide about twenty eight percent of an average family's annual energy demand for cookery and hot water.

In the second method, the saving in energy was calculated for the cookery, hot water, and heating of the building according to the relevant standards and building regulations of Iran. The calculations indicated that the rural families can enjoy a seventeen to forty percent saving in their current energy supply resources.

The paper concludes with a discussion on the findings of the research and puts forward some suggestions on the development of biogas technology in the villages of Iran.