As they said in the first article. “The biggest source of Australia’s pollution is our dirty coal-powered energy sector."
“The average age of Australia’s coal-fired power stations is over 30 years; 72 per cent of Australia’s coal burning power plants are operating beyond their original design lives.
In the second article they confirm that our coal power stations are at their use by date and need replacing anyway.
They've served their purpose and would now cost as much to replace as renewables so the timing is perfect. We can turn them off as we replace their capacity and the owners can fulfill their obligations to restore the land. In most cases it will be the same companies installing and running the new power plants, you can see them switching over in their droves.
The AEMO data suggests there are 23 currently operating coal red powerstations, with an
aggregate capacity of 26.6 GW (data can be found as an appendix, see page 9). The current
median age of existing plants is 30 years, while the mean is 27.
