Only believe half of what you read, or less

A bright spot appeared among the gathering clouds of trade wars last week from, of all places, Kankakee County, Illinois, a patch of flat farmland about 50 miles south of Chicago.

And this spot promised to be so bright it would be visible from outer space.

The Kankahee Daily Journal reported that China-based solar and wind power company Fields of Opportunity & Ornamental Land Structures had proposed a massive $4.01 billion, 777-acre solar farm to straddle unincorporated county townships.

The story, under the headline: "Chinese solar farm to hit region", ran a picture of a distant complex of buildings floating above a sea of solar panels.

The caption read: "Like this village in China, eastern Kankakee County will be covered in solar panels when construction of the $4.01 billion solar farm is completed."

Fields of Opportunity & Ornamental Land Structures reportedly did surveys worldwide to find regions with optimal sun and wind exposure. It had farms pumping out renewable energy in Switzerland, Germany and China, with developments pending in Russia and Iceland.

"We have obviously been around the world analyzing and testing sun patterns. We believe this location will be optimal in terms of sun collection," company spokesman Dexter Chong III.

Then Chong added, "When our company thinks of collecting solar rays, we think of eastern Kankakee County. Most locals don't realize how much sunshine you have here."

And that's when something about the story started to not seem right. Rural Illinois is known for big storms, corn, harsh winters, corn, endless highways that never bend, and corn. But sunshine?

Chong then told the Daily Journal's Lee Provost that construction on the project could begin in two and a half weeks, and farmers would be notified to prevent them from buying seeds.

A few reasonable sounding details followed. The array could have as many as 123 6-by-3-foot panels per acre, meaning as many as 95,500 panels covering form farm fields.

With government regs requiring that one worker cannot monitor more than 117.25 solar panels in any given 24-hour period, they would need at least 800 workers, who would also be housed.

The fuzzy math seemed to stack up.

"The development will be so large, astronauts orbiting Earth in the International Space Station will be able to clearly see the reflection," Provost wrote. We checked. That's 254 miles up.

"Talk about putting Kankakee on the map," country board chairman Andy Wheeler gushed with obvious enthusiasm. "This will not just give us worldwide exposure but through the universe as well."

The piling on continued with Wheeler adding: "This is monumental for eastern Kankakee County. For us to land a project of this scale is fabulous. We've been looking for a project to put us on the map, and I truly believe this is the one."

Wheeler said they were looking for a name for the project and may name it after the company's acronym — F.O.O.L.S.

A solar panel expert from Sunny Skies Tech, Ekoj Rof Sredaer, said the county would become the national leader for energy derived from gas.

Talk about gas.

"To say the area has hit a home run is understating the importance of this development," Sredaer said. "I can't even put it into words."

Allow me.

The first clue was the price of the project: $4.01 billion, as in $April 1st billion.

The second clue was the acronym for the company Fields of Opportunity & Ornamental Land Structures: FOOLS.

And finally, spell solar panel expert Ekoj Rof Sredaer's names backwards and you get: Jokes For Readers.

Congrats to the Daily Journal for the bright spot of a little humor. Happy April Fools Day.

Contact the writer at chrisdavis@chinadailyusa.com