Silence on competitor losing area for energy contract (7)
I believe the answer is:
shrivel
'contract' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'silence on competitor' is the wordplay.
'silence' becomes 'sh' ('sh' is said to tell someone to be silent).
'on competitor' becomes 'rivel' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sh'+'rivel'='SHRIVEL'
'losing area for energy' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shrivel that I've seen before include "Dehydrate" , "Shrink as from cold" , "Become dry and withered" , "Contract into wrinkles" , "Become shrunken and wrinkled" .)