june 14 reuters  western australia plans to switch off its coalfired generators by 2030 and invest a38 billion 263 billion in renewables citing an overwhelming uptake in rooftop solar as driving the move the announcement by the resourceheavy state comes just as eastern australia grapples with soaring power and gas prices due to a string of outages and problems at coalfired power plants western australia said it will invest in new green power infrastructure in the south west interconnected system swis via synergy the states largest electricity generator and retailer of gas and electricity coalfired plants typically make up for more than 60 of the domestic energy market but that has now declined by more than a quarter as demand for gasfired generation rises amid surging global prices that in turn has driven up australias electricity prices to unprecedented levels the state will close collie power station in late2027 and mujas d unit in late2029 it said without the decision to retire the power stations over the next decade western australia would either see major electricity price hikes or taxpayers would be forced to fund billions of dollars of subsidies to keep the system running it added reporting by sameer manekar in bengaluru editing by subhranshu sahu and uttareshv