Attempted solar panel rescue

Here's another picture from my Engineers Without Borders trip from a couple weeks ago. A surprisingly strong gust of wind blew over the solar panel array before it was installed on its mount. It hit a rock which shattered one of the three panels. At left is a picture of me trying to bypass the broken elements to restore some functionality to the panel. This was only partially successful. The open-circuit voltage test and short-circuit current test seemed to indicate that we could get half power out of the panel, but including it with the other two didn't add any power when we tested it with the pump.

Today, I talked to a couple of the student engineers who returned from the project on Wednesday. They reported that BP Solar donated two more panels (one of which broke during delivery by FedEx) in time for them to install one and get the entire project working. When they left, the people in the village were enjoying drinkable water from their faucets any time they wanted it between the hours of 10 AM and 7 PM.