> Many of them already reached their planned life time
That's a misunderstanding of how nuclear plants are built. They don't have a "planned life time"; they have a "safe window" of 10 years, and it is reexamined every 10 years. The age of a reactor doesn't have an incidence on whether it should be stopped or not, only this decennial visit can say if it is safe to continue or not, and if it isn't, what needs to be done to make it safe again. The organ in charge of that (ASN, Agence de Sûreté Nationale) is an independent entity and has the know-how to do their work diligently. If they say it's safe, it's safe.
> At the same time, France has ideal conditions for renewables. A very sunny south, lots of wind on the west and north coasts. Add to that a big supply of water power, this should cover most storage needs
For every kW of installed intermittent energy you need a kW of gas to still have electricity when the intermittent doesn't run. Propping up intermittent is propping up gas and that's the sadness of it.
Also, pretty much all developed countries in the world are at capacity in terms of hydro. We can't build more dams at large scales, unless there's a magic way of creating mountains.
That's a misunderstanding of how nuclear plants are built. They don't have a "planned life time"; they have a "safe window" of 10 years, and it is reexamined every 10 years. The age of a reactor doesn't have an incidence on whether it should be stopped or not, only this decennial visit can say if it is safe to continue or not, and if it isn't, what needs to be done to make it safe again. The organ in charge of that (ASN, Agence de Sûreté Nationale) is an independent entity and has the know-how to do their work diligently. If they say it's safe, it's safe.
> At the same time, France has ideal conditions for renewables. A very sunny south, lots of wind on the west and north coasts. Add to that a big supply of water power, this should cover most storage needs
For every kW of installed intermittent energy you need a kW of gas to still have electricity when the intermittent doesn't run. Propping up intermittent is propping up gas and that's the sadness of it.
Also, pretty much all developed countries in the world are at capacity in terms of hydro. We can't build more dams at large scales, unless there's a magic way of creating mountains.