Ok, I did an override of the load_tmpl function like this:

sub load_tmpl {
    my $self = shift;
    my ($tmpl_file, @extra_params) = @_;

    # add tmpl_path to path array if one is set, otherwise add a path 
+arg
    if (my $tmpl_path = $self->tmpl_path) {
        my @tmpl_paths = (ref $tmpl_path eq 'ARRAY') ? @$tmpl_path : $
+tmpl_path;
        my $found = 0;
        for( my $x = 0; $x < @extra_params; $x += 2 ) {
            if ($extra_params[$x] eq 'path' and
            ref $extra_params[$x+1] eq 'ARRAY') {
                unshift @{$extra_params[$x+1]}, @tmpl_paths;
                $found = 1;
                last;
            }
        }
        push(@extra_params, path => [ @tmpl_paths ]) unless $found;
    }

    my %tmpl_params = ();
    my %ht_params = @extra_params;
    %ht_params = () unless keys %ht_params;

    # Define our extension if doesn't already exist;
    $self->{__CURRENT_TMPL_EXTENSION} = '.html' unless defined $self->
+{__CURRENT_TMPL_EXTENSION};

    # Define a default templat name based on the current run mode
    unless (defined $tmpl_file) {
        $tmpl_file = $self->get_current_runmode . $self->{__CURRENT_TM
+PL_EXTENSION};    
    }

    $self->call_hook('load_tmpl', \%ht_params, \%tmpl_params, $tmpl_fi
+le);

    #require HTML::Template;
    # let's check $tmpl_file and see what kind of parameter it is - we
    # now support 3 options: scalar (filename), ref to scalar (the
    # actual html/template content) and reference to FILEHANDLE
    #my $t = undef;
    #if ( ref $tmpl_file eq 'SCALAR' ) {
    #    $t = HTML::Template->new_scalar_ref( $tmpl_file, %ht_params )
+;
    #} elsif ( ref $tmpl_file eq 'GLOB' ) {
    #    $t = HTML::Template->new_filehandle( $tmpl_file, %ht_params )
+;
    #} else {
    #    $t = HTML::Template->new_file($tmpl_file, %ht_params);
    #}
    
        require Template::Alloy;
          
    my $t = undef;
    if ( ref $tmpl_file eq 'SCALAR' ) {
               $t = Template::Alloy->new(type => 'filename', source =>
+ $tmpl_file, %ht_params, ENCODING => 'UTF-8');
    } elsif ( ref $tmpl_file eq 'GLOB' ) {
           $t = Template::Alloy->new(type => 'scalarref', source => $t
+mpl_file, %ht_params, ENCODING => 'UTF-8');
    } else {
        $t = Template::Alloy->new(type => 'filename', source => $tmpl_
+file, %ht_params, ENCODING => 'UTF-8');
    }
        
    if (keys %tmpl_params) {
        $t->param(%tmpl_params);
    }

    return $t;
}
[download]

It works, but I still get strange characters. My template files displays the strange question mark symbol (firefox), square emtpy box (IE) instead of å, ä and ö.

�ndra ditt l�senord
[download]

The data from my database displays as before

Törjebjöåärne
[download]

I have tried to save my template files as UTF-8 without BOM, without any success. Am I doing some kind of double encoding? Why does it give me different characters, sometimes an ö will give me � and sometimes ö

That's very hard to guess without seeing your code.

Since you have a binmode STDOUT, ':utf8;' somewhere, you don't need to encode the template's output anymore. Chances are that you don't need to encode anything at all.

The next debugging step is: check the data from the database. Do these strings have the UTF8 flag set? (remeber Devel::Peek.). You can also check the codepoints to see if the data arrived correctly.

Check the same thing for the tempalte's output.

Also make sure that you have warnings enabled, and check your error.log for warnings.

I ran some examples with Devel::Peek and this is my result:

I try to output: johan from the database with DBI

SV = PV(0x8e4fe98) at 0x8cdc584
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK)
  PV = 0x8f68b08 "Johan"\0
  CUR = 5
  LEN = 8
[download]

I try to output: Törjebjöåärne from the database with DBI
The UTF-8 flag is not set!

SV = PV(0x8e4fe98) at 0x8cdc584
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK)
  PV = 0x8164d28 "T\303\266rjebj\303\266\303\245\303\244rne"\0
  CUR = 17
  LEN = 20
[download]

I try to output: testar from template

SV = PV(0x8e43e5c) at 0x8e46da4
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (TEMP,POK,pPOK)
  PV = 0x8ecbef0 "testar\n"\0
  CUR = 7
  LEN = 8
[download]

I try to output: testaråäöÅÄÖ from template
UTF-8 flag is set but I still get strange chars

SV = PV(0x8e43e5c) at 0x8e46da4
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (TEMP,POK,pPOK,UTF8)
  PV = 0x8eca838 "testar\357\277\275\357\277\275\357\277\275\357\277\2
+75\357\277\275\357\277\275\n"\0 [UTF8 "testar\x{fffd}\x{fffd}\x{fffd}
+\x{fffd}\x{fffd}\x{fffd}\n"]
  CUR = 25
  LEN = 28
[download]