The recent debate over the possibility of installing wind turbines at DeHart Dam, as played out in The Patriot-News over the last few weeks, has become totally ridiculous.

One side grossly exaggerates the problems associated with wind turbines. The other side exaggerates the benefits of wind turbines. Neither side seems to understand the facts of the matter.

The present technology being used for wind turbines cannot economically deliver power. As propellers were never intended to be turbine rotors, they are very inefficient, leading to the problems some note, as well as an incapability of performing the task that some desire.

Wind energy has the potential to be the most overall efficient means of producing electricity, thus the lowest-cost producer, because it does not rely on handling huge quantities of bulk materials, as do coal plants.

This potential will never be realized so long as wind turbine means the obsolescent, inappropriate technology of propellers.

To fulfill their potential, wind turbines must be treated not as airplanes but as what they are: heavy duty industrial gas turbines, designed and built as standard turbomachinery.

Only when high performance, high efficiency wind turbines are available will wind power be able to carry the load economically that so many of us desire it carry. JONATHAN BIRES Enola