KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Brand-new technology is helping a metro chef take his cuisine to a whole new level. Fox 4 visited with the owner and company behind the city’s first-ever solar-powered food truck.

Louisiana-born metro chef Chris Jones recently opened a Cajun po-boy shop in the Northland off NE Vivion Road. He and his wife Traci took going green to a whole new level with their soon-to-open food truck. Jones said,

“We are locked and loaded to get on the road next week,” Jones said.

Keith Murphy with RisingSun EPC oversaw the solar installation.

“This food truck right now is running off of 100% stored solar power, so it’s running off of the sun,” he said.

The truck is solar-powered; the first of its kind.

“His goal was to not have to carry a noisy generator everywhere,” Murphy said.

Jones said he worried about what could happen if a traditional generator wasn’t put in properly, or if he got into an accident with that kind of equipment mounted on the vehicle.

“I kind of felt defeated. I’d finished the truck, I just couldn’t operate it,” said Jones.

So born was the idea of using energy from the sun.

“There’s no noise, there’s no smell, it’s clean efficient energy. It was just a win-win,” Jones said.

“It took a lot of putting different pieces together to get a battery that would work with a custom inverter and the solar panels to power the food truck. He’s got quite a few things running here. He’s got two fridges, lights, food warmer, water heater,” Murphy said.

Jones said he appreciates the added benefit of going green.

“I have personally never thought to go green and getting educated on the process here has made it all that more good for us!” he said.

Click on this link to learn more about Mobile Mudbug Madness and next week’s food truck kickoff.