First Solar

Probably not for two reasons.

First most charge controllers have "load" terminals rated very low which reduces the amount of watts they can power and most loads like appliances and even large wattage lighting would burn up the terminals.

Second is that you will only get the DC voltage of the battery that the controller is charging to run your load. Most AC loads will not work on any type of DC power source unless it is specially rated for either AC or DC power connection and meets both the voltage and current rating of what the CC can provide.

My understanding of CdTe is that is does better in high heat + high irradiance conditions than silicon typically does. As someone said, First Solar hasn't been prioritizing residential installations. As far as I know, First Solar was chosen by Apple for its retail stores. The toxicity of cadmium may be a concern, especially if there is no enforced requirement for recycling or proper disposal. The rarity of tellurium may also be a concern. The efficiency of CdTe modules has increased over time so it may be that it will get close to monocrystalline silicon at some point. CIGS also can, theoretically, reach that level of performance although that also hasn't happened yet. I think both technologies are claiming they will be around 18% soon for actual panel performance.

Unfortunately thin film solar will probably never reach the efficiencies of silicon unless someone finds a material that converts more sunlight to electrons. CdTe is just the latest combination that seems to work well but there are other materials out there that may be better.

Thin film solar may be cheaper to build but also is more susceptible to heat degradation and efficiency losses. It comes down to how much it costs/watt to make compared to how much kwh it can generate.

Efficiency isn't just about the typical "efficiency" measurement. It's also about other factors like cost of production, both economic and environmental. Perovskites in particular are getting a lot of research because of the allure of being able to produce perovskite-based cells very cheaply. The cheapness and thinness could make it more viable to get well beyond the traditional silicon panel deployment architecture.

CIGS maker HanEnergy is claiming that its MiaSol

I'm not sure why my posts keep being cut off. Here is the rest of what I had tried to post:

There is probably an unrecognized character after MiaSol (an e with an accent mark?) that is causing your text to get truncated after you paste it in. If you paste text, other characters that I've had problems with include apostrophes, quotation marks, and dashes. One fix is to delete and re-type those characters within the text editor.

I agree. The problems in the past with thin film was their short life span. Even figuring in the lower cost to manufacture, the lower efficiency and life made them less attractive as a viable product.

I worked in a research company at the U of D in the mid 70's on Cd Sulfide thin film cells. We could not get them to show a high efficiency and they would die an early death from the heat. While thin film has gotten much better then when I worked on them they still have their short comings.

My guess is that the best material to create thin film has not been found yet. They need to find something that can be manufactured on a continuous ribbon sub-straight and be able to convert a large spectrum of light to electricity. Some research is working on material to use more of the longer wave length or Red light. Getting that conversion will add more than a few % points to the overall efficiency. IMO it is still a work in progress.

No such thing as a GOOD EXPERIENCE with FIRST SOLAR unless you go tin on the IPO and sold before the stock before 8-15-2008. Otherwise as an investor or customer you got HOSED.

hello everybody I'm installing 1400 fisrt solar fs-275 panels on my company facade but I'm curious how much hot can the back of the panel get !?

Like most any PV panel, on a clear, windless day when the sun is perpendicular to the panels, they can get something like 30 - 35 degrees C. warmer than the surrounding ambient air air temp., less with more wind and/or not so bright or direct sunlight.

Data I've seen on these panels shows MC-3 connectors. Have you already gotten these panels approved for installation by your AHJ.