What happens if some farms start extracting water from underground?

what if they extract much more water than the amount they need?
New technologies
for 
small scale
solar panels
thanks to government investments, this year Italy became the country of the World with the largest amount of new installed generation
goal: grid parity
Waste to energy
in Padova the utilization of municipal solid waste for electricity generation powers about 10,000 houses
heat and power
cogeneration
the simultaneous production of electricity and hot water (for building heating) using a single plant allows to achieve extremely high efficiency
example: Padova city hospital
Micro-wind
probably the renewable energy source with the highest efficiency, it is now being installed in small-size farms, near the cities
Will future cities 
produce green energy?
Is it just a matter on investments?
Do we have the technology?

Is it a
research topic?
What is (almost) "mature"
microgeneration technology

a network of small-medium enterprises

investment schemes and policies
What is not
The infrastructure:
today's power distribution network is not capable of hosting a large amount of distributed power micro-generation!
Smart-Grid
Irrigation in agriculture

Each farm receives water from a tiny water canal...
... which is fed by a large canal ...
... which receives water from an even larger canal ...
... fed by a watercourse nearby ...
and so on...
The infrastructure cannot be used "backwards", because it has not been intended and designed so!
It is necessary to:
re-think the network operation
coordinate production and consumption
integrate some storing capabilities
monitor the infrastructure
guarantee efficiency and reliability
Extremely similar problems affect the electric power distribution network!
Probably the largest machine ever built by man.
This research topic has been receiving a huge amount of efforts and investments worldwide
(USA, EU, industry)
At the University of Padova?
Smart microgenerators
Higher efficiency, possibility of regulating the production of energy, integrated communication and coordination features.
Energy storage
Electric energy storage systems that can sustain the grid in case of production or consumption peaks.
Control and coordination of grid-connected devices
Optimize and coordinate the functioning of all the devices connected to the grid (generators and loads), also when they will be in a huge number.
Communicating and measuring
Development of communication architectures and measurement technologies that allow continuous monitoring of the grid and exchange of data between the devices.
Production and consumption forecast
Development of tools to predict both consumption and production of electric energy, to guarantee their matching.
Real time
energy market
Setting up a real time market for the exchange of energy, keeping into account the specific needs for reliability of this fundamental commodity.
Privacy and security
Being a critical infrastructure, it is necessary of protect it from failure but also malicious attacks.
http://smartgrid.dei.unipd.it
It's a new, 
multi-disciplinary challenge, 
where different research groups with diverse 
know-hows 
have to team.
generation of electrical energy