Switzerland based reinsurer company, Swiss Re announced on December 15, 2011 that aside from the human cost of some 30,000 lives in the year 2011, natural disasters in places such as Japan and New Zealand rendered the highest ever catastrophe-related economic losses in history at US$350 billion.

http://www.france24.com/en/20111215-catastrophes-cost-economy-350bn-2011-swiss
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Catastrophes+cost+economy+billion+2011+Swiss/5866215/story.html

A study by researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, published in the December 2011 edition of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews shows that, thanks to recent technological advancements and cost reductions, solar photovoltaic systems can produce energy for the same price as non-sustainable
energy sources.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/2011/kw49/new-queens-university-study-solar-power-much-cheaper-to-produce-than-most-analysts-realize-pv-systems-near-grid-parity.html
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/New-Study-Solar-Grid-Parity-Is-Here-Today/