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Providing 100% of a building's heating and hot water using a solar thermal system in a European climate has been shown to be both practically feasible and functionally successful for a new apartment building in Switzerland. The research conducted a life cycle assessment of the solar thermal system and compared the results with an air-source heat-pump, ground-source heat pump, natural gas furnace, oil furnace and a wood-pellet furnace. Using a range of lifetime scenarios it was found that the solar thermal system displays potentially significant advantages over all other systems in terms of reductions for purchased primary energy (from 84 to 93%) and reductions in GHG emissions (from 59 to 97%). However, due to the heavy industrial processes and the particular metals used in manufacturing, the solar thermal system was shown to have a higher demand for resources which, in relation to the natural gas …