Germany's decision to close nuclear power plants

I am finding myself torn about the German government's decision to shutter all of their nuclear plants by 2021. Actually, no I'm not. I think it's the wrong decision. Here's why, as I posted on the http://www.350.org Facebook page.

Even if Germany replaces all of the nuclear with renewables, the nuclear that needn't have been shut down could provided the baseload power that could have lead to shutting coal. In 2008, Germany produced 46% of its electricity from coal - and 23% from nuclear (also, 14% natural gas, 6% wind, 4% hydro, 3% biomass, 2% waste and 1% solar PV).

So... what will replace the 23% of its electricity demand? And what of shutting the coal power down? Coal is the worst, most dangerous option (and not just on climate, but on a per MWh scale, too). The world and the environmental movement should be clamouring for coal to be shuttered first. Once we've done that, then we can target nuclear.

Thoughts? I'm aware that I'm courting controversy here.