STOCKHOLM, May 15 (Xinhua) -- As part of its effort to become the world's first fossil-free welfare nation, Sweden is investing 200 million SEK (23 million U.S. dollars) in creating an innovation cluster for liquid biogas in order to speed up the transition to fossil-free heavy transports.

The Swedish government announced on Tuesday that it has tasked the National Energy Agency with setting up the cluster, which will support the development and use of biogas in heavy traffic and make visible smart solutions developed in order to enable the transition to biogas.

The innovation cluster will also create opportunities to export both knowledge and Swedish technology.

"Biogas is an important component in the break with fossil dependency within the transport sector," said Swedish environment minister Karolina Skog.

"So far, biogas has mostly been used in road transports, but there are good opportunities to replace fossil fuels within industries and shipping as well," Skog added.

The physical location for the innovation cluster has not been decided yet. Collaborations between businesses, universities and the public sector will be central to the cluster's operations. (1 SEK = 0.12 U.S. dollar)