You could get approximately 7.78 GW of solar installed for US$ 10.8 to 12.6 billion... the trouble is that this would be 7.78 peak GW. The corresponding average GW would depend on the location of the installation... in Perth, Australia, which has exceptionally good insolation, you might get 1.4-1.5 GW on average over a year. And then, you'd have no power on demand, you would have to take it when it is available, or waste it.
OTOH... the ~8 GW you mentioned is thermal power, if it is electricity you want, you will need to spend another $12-15 billion on power generation plants (and infrastructure such as LNG tankers, import terminals etc.). And then, with an exceptionally efficient combined cycle plant, you only get abt 8*55% = 4.4 GW of electric power (but it is "on demand").
Furthermore, the cost of producing the gas is not just the cost of the vessel - you need to drill wells and connect them to the vessel via pipelines/manifolds/risers. You need to pay for the operations, maintenance and repairs. And to begin with, you need to explore for gas, spending hundreds of millions of dollars with no guarantee of success.
By the time you consider the full picture, solar power is competitive with gas for electric power generation, more so in some places (like Australia, where Tony Abbott is going full retard on renewable energy) than others (like Germany, which leads the world in installed PV capacity).
OTOH... the ~8 GW you mentioned is thermal power, if it is electricity you want, you will need to spend another $12-15 billion on power generation plants (and infrastructure such as LNG tankers, import terminals etc.). And then, with an exceptionally efficient combined cycle plant, you only get abt 8*55% = 4.4 GW of electric power (but it is "on demand").
Furthermore, the cost of producing the gas is not just the cost of the vessel - you need to drill wells and connect them to the vessel via pipelines/manifolds/risers. You need to pay for the operations, maintenance and repairs. And to begin with, you need to explore for gas, spending hundreds of millions of dollars with no guarantee of success.
By the time you consider the full picture, solar power is competitive with gas for electric power generation, more so in some places (like Australia, where Tony Abbott is going full retard on renewable energy) than others (like Germany, which leads the world in installed PV capacity).