Personally I do not think Windows 7 takes that much more power consumption, Aspire One netbook users have reported Windows 7 extends the battery life of their netbooks; I'm not sure if the rumors on Windows7 taking more power is true. However, there are plenty of power options to tweak in Windows 7 that are not found on Windows XP e.g. Hybrid Sleep, PCI Express Power Options, USB Selective Suspend, Wireless Power Save, Minimum/Maximum CPU State..etc.