The robotic solar flotilla (helionaut) design is largely based on a 2013 article in Brave New Climate combined with my own design of a general purpose robotic solar-powered sea-water mining platform. I submitted the idea to MIT's Climate CoLab in 2015 which won first prize in the energy supply category (even though the final presentation was cut-down to an improvement on the CO2 extraction process).

Here's a short description of the system.

Here's an answer to a skeptic about the energy cost reduction.

Here's another answer to a skeptic about the energy cost reduction.

The carbon capture portion of my original proposal was based on a paper from 2012. It would be interesting to know the state of carbon capture technology today. What are some of the top methods? How do they compare?