A solar-powered adsorption chiller with heat and mass recovery cycle was designed and constructed. It consists of a solar water heating unit, a silica gel-water adsorption chiller, a cooling tower and a fan coil unit. The adsorption chiller includes two identical adsorption units and a second stage evaporator with methanol working fluid. The effects of operation parameter on system performance were tested successfully. Test results indicated that the COP (coefficient of performance) and cooling power of the solar-powered adsorption chiller could be improved greatly by optimizing the key operation parameters, such as solar hot water temperature, heating/cooling time, mass recovery time, and chilled water temperature. Under the climatic conditions of daily solar radiation being about 16-21 MJ/m(2), this solar-powered adsorption chiller can produce a cooling capacity about 66-90 W per m(2) collector area, its daily solar cooling COP is about 0.1-0.13. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.