Blekinge, Kalmar and Kronoberg County

Energy Agency Southern Sweden operate in the area of Blekinge, Kalmar, Kronoberg and Skåne County, in the southern part of Sweden.

Blekinge County: 160.000 inhabitants, area: 2 946 km²
Kalmar County: 246.000 inhabitants, area: 11 165 km²
Kronobergs County: 202.000 inhabitants, area: 9 426 km²
Skåne County:  1 389.000 inhabitants, area:11 303 km²
(numbers collected from Statistics Sweden 2020-12-30 and area from the County Administrative Boards)

Regional characteristics

Sweden has three levels of government: national, regional and local.
The southern part of Sweden area contains 58 municipalities and four counties.

On regional level, political tasks are undertaken on the one hand by the regional councils, whose decision-makers are directly elected by the people of the county and, on the other, by the county administrative boards which are government bodies in the counties.

Together our municipalities have a population of aorund 2 million inhabitants which is about 20 percent of the Swedish population. The major cities in the area are Malmö, Lund, Växjö, Kalmar and Karlskrona, which have populations between 36.000–325.000 inhabitants.

The region is characterised by a few cities surrounded by minor urban areas and large sparsely populated rural areas. The area covers 18% of the total area of Sweden.

Industry, companies and energy use

The region is highly industrialised and is well-known for its entrepreneurial traditions. The landscape consists of forest, farming and lake districts. Forestry and its three main products; timber, pulp wood and forest residuals (branches and tops) are prominent. We have some large sawmills, and pulp and paper industry companies in the area. The forest residual are used for district heating, both large, combined heat and power production and nearby district heating in all cities and many of the smaller communities. Up to 25% of the electricity used is produced in the area, mainly bio and wind power. The rest is imported from other parts of Sweden, all of which is fossil free. 

Our region is characterized by many small industries, which are slowly decarbonizing. But our main challenge is the transport sector. Of the imported fossil fuel, 85% goes to the transport sector. As the electrification increases, prognosis foresee a rapidly growing need for more renewable electricity.