

So assuming 10 lbs of force, as measured 1 meter away from the hinge, you have about 44.5 Nm of torque. Assuming each door opening was about 90 degrees, then you have about 70 Joules per door operating event.
Each door opening would have a physical theoretical max of 0.02 watt-hours.
Assuming you spent 8 hours opening a door every 10 seconds constantly, then you have 58 watt-hours of energy at the end of the day if you had 100% efficient generators. One typical solar panel would hit that in under 15 minutes in real-world energy collection, not theoretical.



Ah, you are right, wasn’t thinking. Never seen one myself, though totality was something to behold, but once even a smidge of sunlight was directly visible, seemed pretty boring to me, I would guess an annular would be similarly be pretty boring, sure an unusual shape but roughly similar to just normal sunlight…