The Einstein Telescope is a proposed gravitational wave telescope that could be built in Limburg. The construction involves over 1.3 billion euros, with a similar amount for its operation.
The province of Limburg asked Barnebies and Technopolis to investigate (report here) the economic effects of such large expenditures on the local economy. Additionally, we examined the innovation effects: which technological clusters in the vicinity would benefit?
In the study, we compared the telescope with other scientific facilities that also use large vacuum systems (the ET involves tens of kilometers of vacuum tubes) and complex construction activities. Primarily, CERN’s LHC appeared comparable to the ET in terms of construction.
Unlike other facilities, the ET is a relatively passive instrument: once it’s “running,” there’s no need for personnel to operate the system, such as loading samples or preparing experiments. This allows the telescope to be operated with a relatively small crew.
However, the telescope will drive a high demand for computing capacity and highly sensitive optics and photonics. These are the industries in the region—alongside construction and precision mechanics—that will benefit the most from its construction.
All in all, we expect the ET to provide an economic boost of around 3 billion euros over the next 25 years, along with 500 direct jobs and 1,150 indirect jobs.