Within the decade of 1985-1995 the new technique of FBC saw a rapid progress. The technology may be described now as mature and competitive to common pulverized fuel firing systems. The fluidized-bed combustion development has reached a crucial phase which can be characterized by the following key points: (1) Technical problems could be solved by exchange of experience. (2) The electricity and heat requirement is stagnating in some industrialised countries. (3) The requirement of an additional flue gas cleaning system may offset an essential FBC advantage. (4) Economic comparison between FBC and pulverized fuel firing systems show advantages for the former in most cases. (5) Utilization of combustion residues is still regarded as a negative decision criterium in many cases even if significant progress could be achieved. (6) The state-of-the-art unit size is some 800 MWth. In future more power plants within the medium size of 200-500 MWe will be needed. (7) Further development will yield economically sound coal based combined cycle power plant variants with maximum efficiency. VGB published a documentation on the "Future of Fluidized Bed Combustion" in 1997, (VGB Technical Scientific Report, 1997) the essentials of which are summarized in this paper.