DKRZ commissions new climate super, learns from UK Met's PR fumble

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Remember the flap over the  UK Met office’s supercomputer and the charges it was a “super polluter?” Good times. Well, it seems that the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) does too, and is taking steps to sidestep the controversy they went through. From a story at Times Live

The custom-built machine at the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) in the port-city of Hamburg can take any region and forecast how that place’s climate will alter with global warming.

…”It’s the biggest computer in the world to be dedicated solely to climate research,” said German Science Minister Annette Schavan at the inauguration.

The machine has been in operation since spring, but was commissioned this week to take advantage of the climate summit in Copenhagen. Here’s the part they got right

Supercomputers tend to be heavy users of power, but the experts at the DKRZ said it was carbon neutral because DKRZ only purchases for it “green” electricity generated by wind and from other renewable sources.