Looks like I'm late to the party as well. (Spent most of the year in Afghanistan and still getting on board with many things I guess.) OK, so for solar heat...I live in the Savannah, Ga area and we have 5 Aquasol panels. Each is 4x12 and I did the entire installation myself. According to the 50% of surface area coverage rule, we should have installed 6 panels. We went with 5 because that was all that would fit with just one row. We can always add a second row if we choose. We figured let's try 5 and see what that gives us. Turns out that with a pool and panels that get full sun all day and south facing back yard and roof, 5 panels gives us 85 degrees from about late April to early October and about 80 degree water for about 3-5 weeks on either end of this window depending on the weather. When I turned it off for the year right after Veteran's day weekend a few weeks ago, the water was still 78 degrees. Of course, to maximize your solar gain you also want to use a solar cover. We use ours for about 2 months on each end of the swim season to prevent heat loss when the night time temps get cooler.
We installed our pool on January 2011 and I added the solar sometime around April of that year. We never really planned for solar when we did the pool install, but we did start out with a Pentair VS pump that we installed with the pool. This has proven to be key for us as the VS feature of this pump meant that we did not need a dedicated pump for the solar. It also allows us to easily adjust the flow through the panels on the fly in order to better optimize the system. We typically have to increase pump speed a little as the filters get closer to needing cleaning. You are about 250 miles south of us so I'd expect that you may be able to get year-round use of your pool with a good solar set up. We typically go from late Feb/early March - mid November with our solar rig. Basically we have to give it up before the first freeze and then we can start heating again after the last freeze here.
Here's what I suggest based on what I learned doing ours: since you are installing your pool now, plan for solar by considering going with a VS pump so you can get the water up to the roof (roof mount) and adjust the flow to optimize once you add solar. (We saved a lot of money during our build by sourcing a lot of our equipment ourselves rather than just getting it all from our PB). Once your pool is all done, you may consider starting with a solar cover and see what that gives you for heat loss. Perhaps you have a neighbor with a pool who can give you a good idea of what you can expect from a cover alone. In your location that may be all you need, if so then you could just use a cover and save yourself a lot of time and money. If not, or you want solar anyway, then I suggest shop around for good quality panels that will last a long time. You do not want to have to change them out for many years. Installation is labor intensive and takes a little planning, but I did not find it all that difficult. (and no, I am not a building contractor or plumber) It took me a week of after work evenings and most of a Saturday to get our system installed and working properly. The whole thing is automated too. If you search my posts you should be able to find where I have detailed my installation for others a few times in the past. I agree with others about the h2ot site. They did have a few cartoons on there that really explained how the whole system is supposed to work and I really found those helpful during my planning and installation. If you'd like, you can PM me your number and I'll be happy to discuss my experience with you and answer questions for you. Oh yeah, check our equipment list in the signature block for more detail on our solar rig. I'll say that it cost us about $2k for our solar installed by me so if you're looking to save some on yours, if you're comfortable with tools and being on the roof, then go for it and DIY. Disclaimer: I'm no solar expert. I'm just a guy that figured it out good enough to do my own and that is all the experience I have with a solar install. With that said, our solar has performed just fine without any issues ever since I installed it. Beginner's luck!
Hope I offered you something helpful and was not all over the place here. Best of luck to you in your choices!