A solar powered adsorption refrigerator using the pair activated carbon AC35-methanol is presented in this paper. It has been built and tested in the solar laboratory of the faculty of sciences of Rabat. Rabat is a site of Morocco with a Mediterranean climate. Description of the different elements of the unit is given. Experimental results show that such refrigerator, simply fabricated, gives promising results and could be used in developing countries where there is a growing interest in refrigeration. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.