TMI: You might want review out Dr. Taylor’s remarks at the Empire Club, (April 28th 2014) concerning limitations and unknowns relative to graphene.  His comments were made 3 years ago, and may be dated?

Well, perhaps yes and no. After a little googling I found this article from April regarding graphene phototransistors. Researchers combined graphene with silicon carbide (SiC). In this combination, undoped SiC is the photosensitive material. If exposed to light it becomes partially conductive. This changes an electrical field applied to the SiC, which in turn changes the electrical conductivity of the graphene, which is detected.

So on one hand Dr. Taylor is right in that graphene's optical properties are poor, but on the other hand, if combined with other materials, it might still be useful in optical applications. At least that's my best guess. However, I scratched that graphene stuff a little bit on the surface only and didn't dig any deeper.