Since proven world coal resources are sufficient to produce electricity until well into the twenty-second century, coal will remain the primary fossil fuel for power generation. Growing concern about environmental pollution will inevitably lead to more advanced and cleaner cycles. Basic considerations for advanced coal fired plants are maximum availability and efficiency, minimum environmental emissions, optimal total costs (investment, operational and maintenance costs) and maximum utilization of waste products. The currently applied pulverized coal fired steam cycle plant will further develop from supercritical units in the early 1990s (27.5 MPa, 545°C/570°C) to ultrasupercritical double reheat units in the next century (35.0 MPa, 600°C/600°C). By additional improvements, such as increased feed-water temperature, improved turbine blading, waste heat recovery devices and better back-end designs, the net thermal efficiency can be increased further. Gas turbines and fuel cells provide a new basis for efficiency improvement early next century. Combined cycle techniques based on pressurized fluidized bed combustion or gasification and pressurized entrained bed gasification are expected to be the competitive technologies for the next decades. The coal gasification technology has advantages over the coal combustion technology. First, the potential to exploit a high gas inlet temperature for the gas turbine (high efficiency) and second, the ability to utilize the syngas for high efficiency cycles such as the fuel cell technology or in combination with chemical processes during night shift (powerplex principle). Finally, the removal of CO2from the syngas is potentially economically feasible. Disadvantages of coal gasification are the high capital costs and the complexity of the installation. Integrated gasification combined cycle plants are close to commercialization. They promise major reductions in emissions and interesting options for improved efficiency. Materials are a key element in further development.