The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy (FE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) Program is committed to developing efficient, low-cost electricity from natural gas or coal with intrinsic carbon capture capabilities for cost-competitive distributed generation and central power generation applications. Advancements in the cost, durability, reliability, energy density, specific energy, and adoption of SOFC technology over the past decade will be chronicled to provide a picture of today’s state of the art SOFC technology. A discussion of current DOE funded research will provide an introduction to the next generation of SOFC technology and illustrate what advancements are expected in the near term. The status of these strategically oriented research projects will be presented in the context of the program’s integrated systems tests and the roadmap to deploy a MWe-class natural gas-fueled distributed generation system.