Hawaii may seem to have some wind? Do you know of any home wind installations near you? You probably should firstly determine if wind is an option - probably blows even while raining and at night? An electric windplant may be a viable option and newer grid tied inverters are now on the market (for windplants).
Wind is also used for water pumping. the old Aeromotor Chicago windplants would pump tens of thousands of gallons per day out west into big tanks for the cattle. A second hand 8 ft. diameter pumper could lift your water into an elevated tank and then it could return to the pool through a sand filter. (backflush with the electric pump for proper "refreshed" sand quality.)
I bought my first waterpumper for 8 lobsters!

Read this http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/water_heating/index.cfm/mytopic=13290

The article goes into how to decrease cost by putting a timer on the circulator, size the pump correctly and do other changes that would likely be cheaper than solar or at least decrease the cost of the solar system.

Cindi,
I am also from Hawaii and have been looking for the perfect pv pool pump. The best info I have found came from a solar company in Arizona. It seems relatively easy to install and has a quick payback. http://www.dependablesolarproducts.com/solar-pool-pumping.shtml.
Maybe we could find a couple other islanders interested, and place a big order for some sort of discount.

Which island? I am in Kona/Big Island. I called Dependable Solar the other day and they are out of solar panels. But they have the pumps and controllers. The problem is they aren't sure there is enough pressure to push the water to the roof-top solar panels, so I am trying to find out how much pressure is required for that. We have another issue also with the Polaris pump, there is definitely not enough pressure for that. So maybe that pump continues on AC power?

Buy and install a small 1/12 or 1/6 hp electric pump. It will pump about 20-25 GPM but only consumes about 0.25 KWH per hour. Use your large pump for about 2 hours to do the skimming or run your bottom cleaner. This is very cost effective and more efficient than your larger pump. I live in Florida and have considered the solar pool pump but the payback seems very slow here ($0.15/KWH here).

Before buying any pump it's prudent to know what its performance would be. This requires estimating the pressure loss of the system for the proposed flow rate. The pressure drop of the filter and solar panels, if any, should be available from manufacturers. Piping and fitting losses must also be estimated.  The pump performance curve should be compared to the system curve to see the likely operating point.

We opted for a two stage main circulation pump. Our main pump is a 1.5 hp / 2 speed and it consumes about 250w in low speed, used 95% of the time and consumes just over 1100w in high speed. We only use high speed for vacuuming or adding bigger doses of chemicals. Besides the reduced power consumption, it is a lot quieter.

I read that California banned the use of single speed pool pumps in 2008. Pentair has a variable flow pump that they are touting as being vastly more efficient than a 2-speed pump. http://www.pentairpool.com/pdfs/intelliflovfDS.pdf . They sell for over $1000. Probably need to be paying $1/KW-Hr to recoup the cost.

It is true that on a variable speed you can dial in any speed or flow you need. When we ran our numbers given the pump run time and water change over it came back just under what the 1.5 hp ran in low speed. So for 1/3 the cost we went with a 2 speed vs. a variable speed and just let it run in low.

Solar powered swimming pool pumps are gaining in popularity especially in areas like Hawaii where we pay some of the highest rates around. I didn't have much faith in the ability of a solar powered swimming pool pump to keep a pool clean. I was wrong. I won't use anything else in the future. Until I put one in and saw it with my own eyes I would not have believed it. The last one I put on was in September and the homeowner hasn't used the backup pump I installed since. There are many options available including an ac power pack which allows the solar pump to draw power from your house power in case the solar power available is too weak to run the pump. If there is enough solar available to run the pump half on solar it will regulate between the two until there is enough solar power to run the pump solely on the solar. I'm sure that it sounds like a sales pitch. I'm not a salesman (yet) I am a pool professional right now but I see where this technology is leading and I am determined to be a part of it. If anybody wants to know more, send me a message whether you are in Hawaii or not.

Don do you have a link to whoever makes those systems? What size pumps? How many GPM's? I also frequent other forums on pools that ask about this all the time. Is the pump run on DC?

Brock,
They are dc powered pumps. There are a few companies that make some of the pumps but, I am getting ready to be a rep/distributor for one of them. The way it works is: if you have a pool that filters on a 1hp pump you would use a 1/2hp dc pump. The largest one that they make is a 1 1/2 hp. You want to make sure that you have the proper solar array to do the job. I suggest at least 520 watts. In your case if you are located in WI you are going to want to get the ac power pack as well. If I knew then what I know now I would have used the ac power pack as opposed to having a backup pump. I will have my own website soon but if you want to look at the information on the best pump and system google Lorentz Badu Top 12 solar pool pumps. You will find plenty of flow rates etc. You can run the pump controller off of backup batteries but I always go solar direct.
Don

I already am setup to run our 2 speed pump in low on our solar array. But many people ask me about it, I have always thought it shouldn’t be that hard, like you said a DC pump with AC backup to the DC side, it's just that no one has it all together, yet...

Trust me, it's all together now. The biggest hurdle is the cost factor. The pump and controller don't set you back much more than buying a multi-speed energy saving pump, it's the panels that are the heavy hit. The pv panels are coming down in price slowly though. There are so many pool builders around that don't even know it's possible to filter a pool off the grid. Power companies will give the public money to encourage them to use pool pumps that are more efficient but they won't give a dime to a person that puts in a solar powered pump. It doesn't make any sense. As the solar powered swimming pool pump becomes more popular, it's going to take a lot of lobbying on someones part to get some incentives for people to offset their costs other than a state or federal tax credit, but if you factor in the cost of electricity in most sunshine states, the payback on a system is not too bad.

I don't know if you have a line on the panels but I have found Sun Electronic to have the cheapest panels per watt I have seen and they carry quite a few of the name brands as well. I totally understand the cost of the panels being the largest part :)

Thanks for the info, they do have some great prices

Don,

I certainly would like to know what you are doing with pools and solar technology. I am getting ready to go into the solar field (pv), but i also want to learn more about Thermal when it comes to heating pools. I would love to hear from you.
Hal