Energy transitions issues have taken hold of the French presidential campaign. Some, like Jean-Luc Mélenchon or Benoît Hamon are reducing it to the stigmatization of nuclear energy, they propose to abandon through the closing of power units in safe technical condition. Others, like Emmanuel Macron or François Fillon, propose a diversification of the electricity mix but are hostile to shale gas exploration. All of them think energy saving investments are the panacea to reduce unemployment, but without defining convincing financial solutions, due to the diversity of the situations.

France is not an isolated case. The American presidential ...

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The debate about the project of closing Fessenheim nuclear plant, which is not motivated by any security concern since its operation is authorized until 2022, is very sharp because of the 2 200 layoffs which will result of its closure. It is much more than in Florange for instance and it leads us to question about the consequences of the Ecologists economic choices on employment. This project was a François Hollande commitment precisely to get their support during the last presidential election. The same demand had been formulated, on the other side of the Rhine, by the Bade-Würtemberger ...

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The stoppage, for diverse reasons, of around ten nuclear power plants and a colder autumn have been enough to disrupt the energy mix in France in November. Consumption increased by  near 9%, compared to November 2015, but the net electricity production fell by 3.7%, which has provoked a slump of exports. The trade balance has been divided by 10 with just a 0.64 TWh surplus. Nuclear production has fallen by 12.7% and its share of the power production, which usually is close to 75%, was reduced to 68%. Thanks to a good level of the water in ...

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