DAPHNE, Ala.—Spanish Fort's Mark Helms was honored by Daphne Utilities Wednesday night as the second recipient of the “Skye’s the Limit” environmental achievement award. The award recognizes a child whose school science fair project is deemed the most exceptional in the field of environmental science.

Helms, a Spanish Fort Middle student, was honored for his unconventional means to cook hot dogs — using only solar power. Helms said he found the basic idea for his project online, but he built solar-powered cookers from a pizza box and he retrofitted his family’s old satellite dish to heat ice cubes and marbles and cook hot dogs within a few degrees of being completely cooked on a cold day in February using just solar energy.

Through his experiment, he found the satellite dish to be the best way to cook a hot dog using solar power because the shape directed the sun’s rays.

Helms said he didn’t get to enjoy the hot dogs he cooked, however.

“My parents wouldn’t let me eat them — and, they were evidence,” he told members of the utilities board.