[rrrazdan]

While usually people use percentages in the wrong way, in this case they used and compared them the appropriate way.

Percentage here is used as a ratio of total output and a decline in that ratio over time is a decline in role. Exactly what the articles headline asserts. It doesn't matter that nuclear may have grown in absolute numbers. The assertion is that its role has declined which is true.

[hinkley]

It's still a bit sketchy because total output matters in a world where we push for more efficient use of power.

Could we put enough fancy light bulbs and triple glazed windows and heat pumps out there to run everything on nuclear (I am biased against nuclear but I'm also biased against coal externalities) and solar/wind? What's our shortfall? In this case it's not the % of nuclear I care about. It's how much base load it can provide.

Bad budgeting is one of my peeves about software and so I get a little grumpy when I see it happening elsewhere.