Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology has been under development for a broad range of power generation applications. The attractiveness of this technology is its efficient and clean production of electricity from a variety of fuels. The main features of the SOFC are all solid-state construction and high-temperature operation. The combination of these features leads to a number of unique characteristics and advantages for this type of fuel cell, including flexibility in cell and stack designs, manufacturing processes, and power plant sizes. This paper discusses and summarizes the SOFC's features and provides an overview of this technology's potential applications. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.