This work assesses experimentally the feasibility of feeding a high tar load product gas from biomass gasification to a planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) for renewable electricity generation. The SOFC had a nickel gadolinium-doped ceria anode (Ni-GDC) and the gasifierwas a pilot scale circulating fluidized bed, employing hot gas-cleaning to remove particulates, HCl and H2S. The SOFC operated for several hours on either pre-reformed gas (reduced tar levels < 0.5 g Nm(-3)) as well as on high tar-laden wood gas (tar levels > 10 g Nm(-3)) i.e. with no pre-reforming of tars. The tests were carried out at low fuel utilization U-f ofaround 20% at a current density j = 130 mA cm(-2). In all cases stable continuous SOFC performance was established. Post experimental examination of the SOFC showed that the anode was not affected by carbon deposition or other impurity accumulation. (C) 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.