AGL Energy shareholders could see declines in the value of their holdings if the near 200-year-old company is forced to fund any more than $2 billion worth of the renewable energy projects that will be needed to replace its retiring Loy Yang coal plant from its balance sheet.

AGL must develop an expected 12GW of firming and storage capacity after it said it would close Loy Yang A – Australia’s biggest polluting coal power plant – in 2035, which is a decade earlier that previously planned amid unrelenting shareholder pressure.