Scottish & Southern Energy on Friday bought Irish wind farm operator Airtricity for €1.45bn (£1.08bn), a deal that will make SSE the largest owner of wind power assets in the UK and will pay Airtricity’s founder about €30m.

In October the privately owned Irish company sold its US wind farm portfolio to Eon of Germany for $1.4bn, and at the end of last year was thought to be talking to a range of companies – including Eon, German rival RWE and Italian energy group Eni – about the sale of the rest of the business.